Abstract
The term “Endothelial Progenitor Cell (EPC)” is generally used to describe a cell type that are capable to differentiate into mature endothelial cell and contribute to neo-vascularization in embryo or in ischemic tissues. There have been an increasing number of studies on the role of EPCs as a potential therapeutics agent for vascular disorders. However, the low amounts of EPCs restrict their usefulness, and the number and function of EPCs can be further reduced by age and cardiovascular risk factors. In this study, we hypothesized that a well-studied and commercially available clonal human osteoprogenitor cell line, the fetal osteoblastic 1.19 cell line (hFOB), may have endothelial differentiation potential. We found that hFOB cells are able to differentiate into a tubular network structure and uptake low-density lipoprotein when they are cultured under Matrigel environment. After tube forming, hFOB cells also express the endothelial progenitor cell markers, such as CD31, Flk-1, V-CAM, vWF. Moreover, hFOB cells also increase the vessel number in the chick chorioallantoic membrane ex vivo angiogenesis experiment. Our data suggest that hFOB cells provide for researchers an easily available, homogeneous, and consistent in vitro model for study of human endothelial progenitor cells.