Vascular regenerative cells in cardiometabolic disease

Abstract

Purpose of review This review will provide an overview of the recent literature linking the pathophysiology of cardiometabolic disease with the depletion and dysfunction of circulating vascular regenerative (VR) cell content. Moreover, we provide rationale for the use of VR cells as a biomarker for cardiovascular risk and the use of pharmacological agents to improve VR cell content. Recent findings Recent studies demonstrate the potential of VR cells as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk and as a therapeutic target. Notably, lipid-lowering agents, antihyperglycemic therapies such as sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, as well as exercise and weight loss, have all been found to improve VR cell content, providing mechanistic evidence supporting a role in mitigating adverse cardiovascular outcomes in people with cardiometabolic-based disease. Summary The importance of VR cells as a biomarker in assessing cardiovascular risk is becoming increasingly apparent. This review highlights recent literature supporting the accurate use of VR cell characterization to monitor the capacity for vessel repair and novel strategies to improve vessel health. Future research is required to validate and optimize these emerging approaches.

Vascular regenerative cell content in South Asians: the key learnings

“…A novel mechanism proposed to participate in elevated cardiovascular risk involves the concept of vascular regenerative cell exhaustion (VRCE), defined simply as the depletion and/or dysfunction of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells, or their progeny that function collectively to coordinate the balance between vascular damage and ensuing inflammation versus vessel regeneration [7][8][9][10][11][12]. To measure VRCE, high-throughput enumeration of vascular regenerative cell subsets via flow cytometry has traditionally been performed using cell surface marker expression [13][14][15].…”