Existence of endothelial progenitor cells with self-renewal and clonogenic potential in the normal human placenta and preeclampsia

Preeclampsia (PE) is the leading cause of maternal death in developing countries. PE is defined as hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. The only curative treatment is placental delivery. Evidence suggests that placental vasculature is disturbed with shallow invasion of maternal arteries.;We hypothesize that the function of a particular type of EPCs - endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) are impaired in PE.;ECFCs were isolated from macro vasculature of normotensive and PE placentas. ECFCs robustly expressed CD31, CD105, CD144, CD146 and were negative for CD14 and CD45. PE-ECFCs formed less complex structures on Matrigel and gave rise to lower numbers of high proliferative potential colonies upon single cell plating compared to normotensive controls.;ECFCs exist in the human placenta. The function of PE-ECFCs is disturbed. Our data provides new insight into the pathophysiology of PE and the role of ECFCs.