TY - JOUR
T1 - Monocytes as Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs), Another Brick in the Wall to Disentangle Tumor Angiogenesis
AU - Lopes-Coelho, Filipa
AU - Silva, Fernanda
AU - Gouveia-Fernandes, Sofia
AU - Martins, Carmo
AU - Lopes, Nuno
AU - Domingues, Germana
AU - Brito, Catarina
AU - Almeida, António M
AU - Pereira, Sofia A
AU - Serpa, Jacinta
N1 - The project was funded by IPOLFG, EPE, by iNOVA4Health (UID/Multi/04462/2019) a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério da Educação e Ciência, through national funds and co-funded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and by Fundação para a Ciência eTecnologia (PhD student fellowship: PD/BD/128337/2017).
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - Bone marrow contains endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) that, upon pro-angiogenic stimuli, migrate and differentiate into endothelial cells (ECs) and contribute to re-endothelialization and neo-vascularization. There are currently no reliable markers to characterize EPCs, leading to their inaccurate identification. In the past, we showed that, in a panel of tumors, some cells on the vessel wall co-expressed CD14 (monocytic marker) and CD31 (EC marker), indicating a putative differentiation route of monocytes into ECs. Herein, we disclosed monocytes as potential EPCs, using in vitro and in vivo models, and also addressed the cancer context. Monocytes acquired the capacity to express ECs markers and were able to be incorporated into blood vessels, contributing to cancer progression, by being incorporated in tumor neo-vasculature. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) push monocytes to EC differentiation, and this phenotype is reverted by cysteine (a scavenger and precursor of glutathione), which indicates that angiogenesis is controlled by the interplay between the oxidative stress and the scavenging capacity of the tumor microenvironment.
AB - Bone marrow contains endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) that, upon pro-angiogenic stimuli, migrate and differentiate into endothelial cells (ECs) and contribute to re-endothelialization and neo-vascularization. There are currently no reliable markers to characterize EPCs, leading to their inaccurate identification. In the past, we showed that, in a panel of tumors, some cells on the vessel wall co-expressed CD14 (monocytic marker) and CD31 (EC marker), indicating a putative differentiation route of monocytes into ECs. Herein, we disclosed monocytes as potential EPCs, using in vitro and in vivo models, and also addressed the cancer context. Monocytes acquired the capacity to express ECs markers and were able to be incorporated into blood vessels, contributing to cancer progression, by being incorporated in tumor neo-vasculature. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) push monocytes to EC differentiation, and this phenotype is reverted by cysteine (a scavenger and precursor of glutathione), which indicates that angiogenesis is controlled by the interplay between the oxidative stress and the scavenging capacity of the tumor microenvironment.
KW - angiogenesis
KW - cancer
KW - endothelial cells (ECs)
KW - endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)
KW - monocytes
U2 - 10.3390/cells9010107
DO - 10.3390/cells9010107
M3 - Article
C2 - 31906296
SN - 2073-4409
VL - 9
JO - Cells
JF - Cells
IS - 1
M1 - 107
ER -