Do blood vessel stem cells repair damage in atherosclerosis?

Vascular Resident Stem Cells in Arteriosclerosis (renewal)

BHF Professor Qingbo Xu and his team at King’s College London have been studying stem cells that lie in the wall of blood vessels. These cells are thought to be important in repairing damaged blood vessels found in atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis, where fatty material builds up in the walls of the arteries and they harden, can lead to heart attacks and strokes if the vessels become totally blocked. Currently we reduce the chances of this happening and people dying from heart disease by reducing blood cholesterol levels using cholesterol lowering drugs such as statins. But we need to understand more about how atherosclerosis develops in the first place, so we can find new ways to prevent and treat it. Scientists believe that stem cells present in the heart and circulatory system may be able to repair blood vessels once they become damaged by changing into specialised cells that make up blood vessels. Professor Qingbo Xu has identified a number of molecules that are important in this process, and that could be targeted using drugs to promote new blood vessel growth. The team has also been able to reprogramme stem cells from skin into blood vessel cells, which when injected into mice, improve blood flow. The King’s team have now received funding from the BHF to study exactly how stem cells move from the outer layer of the blood vessel wall to the inner surface, where they replace damaged cells. They also want to find out if stem cells could be involved in the development of atherosclerosis itself. Using stem cells from mice and humans, they will work out how they can change them into blood vessel cells. They will also create a tissue-engineered blood vessel using different types of these cell and find out if these can be used as a tissue graft in mice. This research will reveal more about the stem cells present in the heart and circulatory system, what they do, and whether they are involved in atherosclerosis. It may reveal a new way to treat diseased blood vessels in the future.