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Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells: A Review of Definition, Characterization and Identification

Sandra Martins and Janete Quelhas-Santos

The healthy endothelium is a major player in the control of blood fluidity, platelet aggregation and vascular tone. Several risk factors present in some diseases promote endothelial dysfunction, which is characterized by reduction of bioavailability and impairment of vasodilator effect, as a consequence, the endothelium not only becomes dysfunctional, but endothelial cells can also lose integrity, progress to senescence, and detach into the circulation. A mechanism of repair is promoted by circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) recruited from the bone marrow. Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) may be an indicator of vascular damage, while circulating EPCs may be a biomarker for vascular repair. Actually, there is a variety of procedures that one can use to assist in the isolation and quantification of EPCs. This review describes the functions performed by EPCs at each stage of the repairment process, emphasizing the current methods for identifying or quantifying the endothelial lineage