Peripheral artery disease (PAD) and the consecutive build-up of an atherosclerotic plaque restricting blood flow to the lower limbs lead to critical limb ischaemia, one of the most common circulation problems in the world. Although a small number of interventions (such as surgery or revascularization treatments) are available, patients with this condition are often too ill for these procedures, giving a poor prognosis for the disease. Several strategies to promote neovascularization using different stem cell populations with angiogenic potential have been proposed as plausible therapies. Perivascular cells (PCs), key structural components of the wall of small and large blood vessels have numerous advantages over other cell types since they are highly abundant, easy to obtain from the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of human adipose tissue (an ethically approved source) and have mesenchymal and angiogenic properties. The work described in this thesis addressed the hypothesis that PCs isolated from human white adipose tissue would promote the recovery of blood flow in an ischaemic hindlimb by increasing blood vessel number and blood perfusion to the foot. To investigate whether PCs from human white adipose tissue could rapidly increase neovascularization and, therefore, be used as a possible therapeutic treatment for PAD and critical limb ischaemia, the initial aim was to validate, characterise and demonstrate the properties of the murine equivalent of these cells, in order to establish a direct link between the injected cells and the ones natively found in the mouse. This was then followed by the use of murine models of angiogenesis to determine whether transplanted human PCs stimulate angiogenesis in vivo. Initial studies using immunohistochemistry, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and in vitro mesodermal differentiation demonstrated that perivascular cells (namely pericytes and adventitial cells) are present in multiple mouse organs, can be sorted to purity, and have mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) properties. These cells had similar characteristics to their human counterparts, thus validating the mouse as a suitable model for determining whether transplanted human PCs could stimulate angiogenesis. Using in vitro and two in vivo (sponge implantation and hindlimb ischaemia) models, it was shown that human PCs have angiogenic properties being capable of tube formation and interaction with endothelial cells, as well as promoting angiogenesis within sponges. Contrary to expectations, PCs did not increase blood perfusion to the mouse ischaemic hindlimb, despite increasing microcirculation within the skeletal muscle and myofibre regeneration. This work showed that PCs obtained from human adipose tissue have important therapeutic implications in promoting angiogenesis and skeletal muscle regeneration but failed to increase arteriogenesis which is the key mechanism allowing the restoration of blood perfusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:735742 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | González Galofre, Zaniah Nashira |
| Contributors | Peault, Bruno ; Hadoke, Patrick |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/28727 |
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