2024-09-11 00:46:02
Deficiency of angiogenesis is behind many diseases.
Components of human endothelial cells stained for identification.
Endothelial cells make up the electrical wall of the blood vessels, which provide nutrients and oxygen to the body’s cells. When this supply is insufficient, endothelial cells activate and form new blood vessels in a process called angiogenesis. Changes in angiogenesis, both due to excess and deficiency, have been described in many diseases, including myocardial infarction, cancer, metabolic diseases and even in old age. The research carried out in the last decade has allowed us to identify many mechanisms by which these processes are activated, but we do not know which cells are activated.
The development of new large-scale tracking technologies has made it possible to recognize in recent years that there is a lot of heterogeneity in endothelial cells, at the level of different tissues, but also within the same body, explains Mariona Graupera, researcher at the Research Center against leukemia. Josep Carreras. In conjunction with the Carlos III National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) and the Fundació Institut de Recerca de Barcelona (IRB Barcelona), Graupera leads a project that wants to answer the question of whether there is a type of endothelial cells that act as father. in organs and pathological states. That is, in those moments when the network needs to expand.
“In our project we want to use cutting-edge technology that allows us to label the DNA of endothelial cells and thus be able to trace the offspring of these cells through several generations,” he said. The identification of people with progenitor properties has the potential for the design of new therapeutic strategies with regenerative potential that allow tissue growth in a selective and efficient manner in those pathologies characterized by insufficient angiogenesis.. M. Baldomà
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