Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Translational and Clinical Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1396794
This article is part of the Research Topic Stem Cell and Translational Medicine Research in Endocrine Diseases View all 4 articles

Modulating endothelial colony forming cells for the treatment of vascular complications in diabetes and barriers to clinical translation

Provisionally accepted
Yaqiong Liu Yaqiong Liu caomhan lyons caomhan lyons Christine Ayu Christine Ayu Timthoy O'Brien Timthoy O'Brien *
  • University of Galway, Galway, County Galway, Ireland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, leading to various vascular complications. Accumulating evidence indicates that endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) have attractive prospects for repairing and restoring blood vessels. Thus, ECFCs may be a novel therapeutic option for diabetic patients with vascular complications who require revascularization therapy. However, it has been reported that the function of ECFCs is impaired in DM, which poses challenges for the autologous transplantation of ECFCs. In this review, we summarize the molecular mechanisms that may be responsible for ECFC dysfunction and discuss potential strategies for improving the therapeutic efficacy of ECFCs derived from patients with DM. Finally, we discuss barriers to the use of ECFCs in human studies in light of the fact that there are no published reports using these cells in humans.

    Keywords: Endothelial colony forming cells, Diabetes Mellitus, Pharmacological conditioning, genetic modification, disease related cellular dysfunction, clinical translation

    Received: 06 Mar 2024; Accepted: 14 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, lyons, Ayu and O'Brien. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Timthoy O'Brien, University of Galway, Galway, H91 TK33, County Galway, Ireland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.