关键词: 干/祖细胞, 血管壁, 血管, 血管病变, 动脉粥样硬化

Abstract: There are four major populations of vascular-resident stem/progenitor cells, namely mesenchymal stem cells, smooth muscle progenitor cells, endothelial progenitor cells and pericytes, they have highly proliferative potential and differentiated clonogenic. Stem/progenitor cells can be fixed in a certain part of the vessels or enter in the peripheral circulation, and these cells in the vascular wall play an important role in post-injury angiogenesis and vascular regeneration after birth. This paper introduced the source, distribution and biological characteristics of these progenitor cells, and the impact on these progenitor cells in cardiovascular pathological conditions. And an overview about the complexity of the distribution and biological characteristics of these vascular stem/progenitor cells under pathological conditions was described. Finally, the role of vascular stem/progenitor cells was confirmed, and the prospect for future research was described.

Key words: stem/progenitor cells, vascular wall, blood vessels, vascular pathology, atherosclerosis