More than 100 years back the first paper on Buerger's disease was published. In many countries the disease prevalence is significantly reduced. But in the developing and poor countries where childhood smoking is uncontrolled this disease seems to be persistent. The disease is surprisingly less common in urban population and in those who have gone to proper schooling! probably this means these children are protected from the risk of childhood smoking. There are reports mentioning that autoimmunity plays an important role. The initial enthusiasm to do surgeries faded away slowly as the results are universally not satisfactory. Now, a new concept directed towards cell therapies (stem cells) renewed the interest in detecting the patients who can be benefited by them. Here is a report on endothelial progenitor cells and TAO.
Reduced circulating endothelial progenitor cells in thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease)
Hyung Sub Park1 Kyung Hee Cho1 Koung Li Kim2 Duk-Kyung Kim2Taeseung Lee1
Taeseung Lee Department of Surgery Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Seoul National University College of Medicine 173-82 Gumi-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si Gyeonggi-do 463-707 Korea Email: tslee@snubh.org
Abstract
To determine the role of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in the pathogenesis of thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO), EPC numbers and colony-forming units, migratory function and tubular structure formation in vitro were compared between 13 young male TAO patients and two age-matched healthy control groups: 11 smokers and 12 non-smokers. TAO patients had significantly lower numbers of EPCs and EPC colonies compared to both non-smokers [190 (97.0–229) vs 528 (380–556), p < 0.001 for EPCs and 0.80 (0.53–1.00) vs 2.80 (2.08–4.00) per mm2, p = 0.001 for EPC colonies] and smokers [190 (97.0–229) vs 272 (229–326), p = 0.012 for EPCs and 0.80 (0.53–1.00) vs 2.80 (1.80–3.93) per mm2, p = 0.001 for EPC colonies]. However, there were no significant differences in migratory function or tube formation between the three groups. These results suggest that TAO patients have an intrinsic decrease in EPCs not entirely associated with smoking, which may be the cause of endothelial dysfunction seen in TAO patients leading to the development of this disease at early ages.
Hyung Sub Park1 Kyung Hee Cho1 Koung Li Kim2 Duk-Kyung Kim2Taeseung Lee1
Taeseung Lee Department of Surgery Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Seoul National University College of Medicine 173-82 Gumi-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si Gyeonggi-do 463-707 Korea Email: tslee@snubh.org
Abstract
To determine the role of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in the pathogenesis of thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO), EPC numbers and colony-forming units, migratory function and tubular structure formation in vitro were compared between 13 young male TAO patients and two age-matched healthy control groups: 11 smokers and 12 non-smokers. TAO patients had significantly lower numbers of EPCs and EPC colonies compared to both non-smokers [190 (97.0–229) vs 528 (380–556), p < 0.001 for EPCs and 0.80 (0.53–1.00) vs 2.80 (2.08–4.00) per mm2, p = 0.001 for EPC colonies] and smokers [190 (97.0–229) vs 272 (229–326), p = 0.012 for EPCs and 0.80 (0.53–1.00) vs 2.80 (1.80–3.93) per mm2, p = 0.001 for EPC colonies]. However, there were no significant differences in migratory function or tube formation between the three groups. These results suggest that TAO patients have an intrinsic decrease in EPCs not entirely associated with smoking, which may be the cause of endothelial dysfunction seen in TAO patients leading to the development of this disease at early ages.
