Abstract

Introduction: Endothelial cells (ECs) or endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are essential cells for blood vascular regeneration and vascular tissue engineering. However, the source of EPCs are limited. Indeed, these cells only existence with low rate at some tissues such as bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and peripheral blood. This study aimed to produce EPCs from direct reprogramming of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) by ETV2 transfection in vitro.

Methods: ADSCs were isolated according to the published works. They were confirmed as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with some characteristics included expression of CD44, CD73, CD90, negative of CD14, CD45, and HLA-DR; in vitro differentiation into adipocytes, and osteoblasts. ETV-2 mRNA was in vitro produced by commercial kit. ETV-2 mRNA molecules were transfected into ADSCs by Fugenes and Lipofectamine agents. These transfected cells were evaluated the expression of EPC properties included expression of CD31, VEGFR-2 in the cell surface by flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, and in vitro vessel formation in the Matrigel.

Results: The results showed that ETV-2 could transform the ADSCs from mesenchymal cell phenotype into endothelial cell phenotype with 10% transfected ADSCs expressing the CD31 in their surface, they also could form the vessel structure in vitro.

Conclusion: Although the low efficacy of direct reprogramming, this study gave the new strategy to produce EPCs from the favorite cell sources as ADSCs.