HS11 - Hatzopoulos Hub Site

Our research focuses on cardiovascular progenitor cells as a model system to study heart and blood vessel development and as cell therapy tools in adult disease models. We have shown that in vitro expanded embryonic endothelial progenitor cells form blood vessels after transplantation in the developing embryo. In adult disease models, we found that vascular progenitor cells are originally recruited to sites of angiogenesis by endothelial P-selectin. In mouse models of multiple tumors, we demonstrated that the progenitor cells home to hypoxic metastases with high VEGF expression, but spare well-vascularized tumors and normal organs. Based on these findings, we used the cells as “Trojan horses” to deliver toxic agents directly to the tumor tissue killing malignant cells and blocking tumor growth. Exploring further the specific accumulation of progenitor cells to ischemic sites in vivo, we found that transplantation of progenitor cells under acute (heart) or chronic ischemia (hindlimb) enhances vascularization and improves tissue recovery.

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