“…Consistently, a human platelet lysate gel has been recently designed to provide a 2D matrix enriched with growth factors and able to promote ECFC amplification and networking formation [ 141 ]. Likewise, ex vivo proliferation is enhanced by pre-conditioning ECFCs with the pro-angiogenic cues fucoidan [ 142 , 143 , 144 ] and SDF-1α [ 145 , 146 ], with the hexapeptide SFLLRN, which mimics the thrombin effect on PAR-1 [ 53 , 147 , 148 ], with the erythroid growth factor EPO [ 78 , 106 , 149 , 150 , 151 , 152 ], with the isoflavone genistein [ 153 , 154 ], with nicotine [ 155 ], and with an acidic growth medium [ 129 , 156 ]. Hypoxic pre-conditioning has also been proposed as an alternative approach to accelerate the ex vivo expansion of primary ECFCs [ 157 , 158 ], although subsequent studies demonstrated that their angiogenic activity is compromised under hypoxia [ 131 , 132 ].…”