In vitro and in vivo study on angiogenesis of porcine induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a promising source of endothelial cells (ECs) for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Since clinical application of embryo stem cells (ESCs) involves issues of medical ethics and risk of immune rejection, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) will facilitate cell transplantation therapy for the cardiovascular diseases. Swine is identified as an ideal large-animal model for human, because of its similar organ size and physiological characteristics. However, there are very few studies on EC differentiation of porcine iPSCs (piPSCs). In recent study, we provided an efficient protocol to differentiate piPSCs into ECs with the purity of 19.76% CD31 positive cells within 16 days. Passaging of these cells yielded a nearly pure population, which also expressed other endothelial markers such as CD144, eNOS and vWF. Besides, these cells exhibited functions of ECs such as uptake of low-density lipoprotein and formation of tubes in vitro or blood vessels in vivo. Our study successfully obtained ECs from piPSCs via a feeder- and serum-free monolayer system and demonstrated their angiogenic function in vivo and in vitro. piPSC-ECs derivation is not only potential for the autologous cell transplantation and cardiovascular drug screening, but also for the mechanistic studies on EC differentiation and endothelial dysfunction.