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(Hypertension. 2005;45:491.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial Commentaries

Beneficial Effects of Circulating Progenitor Endothelial Cells Activated by Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists

Bernard I. Levy

From Center for Cardiovascular Research, INSERM Lariboisière, University Paris, France.

Correspondence to Bernard I. Levy, Center for Cardiovascular Research, INSERM Lariboisière, U689, University Paris 7, 41 Bd, de la Chapelle, 75010 Paris, France. E-mail levy@larib.inserm.fr

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
The formation of new capillaries to provide oxygen supply for ischemic tissues or tumors was believed to be exclusively mediated by the proliferation and migration of existing endothelial cells. However, increasing evidence suggests that circulating cells home to sites of ischemia and contribute to adult neovascularization. It is likely that these processes are of importance in the long-term evolution of vascular adaptation of patients with ischemic diseases and possibly of hypertensive patients. Actually, ischemia is a major component of most of end-target damages of hypertension; thus, treatments and/or nonpharmacological therapy (such as physical exercise training for example) aiming to promote neovascularization could have new and unexpected beneficial effects.

Bahlmann et al report, in this issue of Hypertension, that treatment with angiotensin II receptor antagonists increases the number of regenerative endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in patients with type II diabetes.¹

	What Are the EPCs?

 
In 1997, Asahara et al reported that CD34-positive mononuclear cells in the human peripheral blood incorporated into the foci of vascular injury and differentiated into vascular endothelial cells.² Labeled human CD34-positive mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood and administered to nude mice with ischemic hindlimb were able to be incorporated into the ischemic muscle tissue and differentiated into endothelial cells. Further studies from the same group demonstrated that a certain population of bone marrow cells, now identified as EPCs, is recruited in the foci of neovascular formation and differentiates into vascular endothelial cells in the setting of both physiological (during the endometrium proliferative process for example) and pathological (surgically induced . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Stimulation of Endothelial Progenitor Cells: A New Putative Therapeutic Effect of Angiotensin II Receptor Antagonists

Ferdinand H. Bahlmann, Kirsten de Groot, Ottfried Mueller, Barbara Hertel, Hermann Haller, and Danilo Fliser
Hypertension 2005 45: 526-529. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]