Endothelial progenitor cells improve the quality of transplanted hematopoietic stem cells and maintain longer term effects in mice

Engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is a pre-requisite for the success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Fetal blood cell (FBC)-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are known to facilitate HSC reconstitution in the early phase. However, longer term effects on HSCs remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of EPCs on the quality of transplanted hematopoietic stem cells in mouse HSCT model. BALB/c mice were randomly divided into four groups, namely, control, total body irradiation only, HSCT, and HSCT + EPCs (with infusion of 5 × 10⁵ EPCs). Mice was sacrificed on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 post-HSCT for the analysis of the bone marrow pathology by H&E staining, measurement of c-kit⁺sca-1⁺, c-kit⁺, apoptosis, and necrosis by flow cytometry as well as colony formation assay. Secondary transplantation involved the injection of transplanted BALB/c-derived HSCs into new TBI-treated BALB/c mice. Compared with HSCT, EPCs infusion promoted the differentiation and reduced apoptosis of transplanted HSCs, possibly through promotion of vascular repair of the bone marrow microenvironment via differentiation into the bone marrow endothelial cells. Significantly, EPCs’ effect on HSCs was maintained for a long period as demonstrated using a secondary transplantation approach. These data revealed EPCs improved the quality and quantity of transplanted HSCs and maintained their effects over the longer term, suggesting a novel approach to improve HSCT efficiency and outcomes.