371 Endothelial Progenitor Cells: Characterization and Role in Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation Copyright@ Nida Fatima --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License AJBSR.MS.ID.000697 Short Communication Nida Fatima 1 , Ashfaq Shuaib 2 and Maher Saqqur 2 1 Visiting Instructor Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA 2 Senior Consultant Neurology, University of Alberta, Canada *Corresponding author: Nida Fatima, Visiting Instructor Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA To Cite This Article: Nida Fatima. Endothelial Progenitor Cells: Characterization and Role in Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation. Am J Biomed Sci & Res. 2019 - 3(4). AJBSR.MS.ID.000697. DOI: 10.34297/AJBSR.2019.03.000697 Received: June 20, 2019 | Published: June 27, 2019 American Journal of Biomedical Science & Research ISSN: 2642-1747 www.biomedgrid.com Introduction Cerebral Arteriovenous malformations (cAVMs) are character- ized by “nidus”, which is a group of abnormally dilated blood vessels, due to aberrant angiogenesis and vascular re modeling [1]. Histo- pathological and molecular analysis of these CAVMs revealed high- er level of angiogenic factors and vascular cytokines of the cAVMs [2,3]. Concentrated effects of angiogenic and inflammatory factors, which include angiopoietin-2, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF), and IL-6 contribute to- wards maintaining the angiogenic phenotype of the cAVMs [4,5]. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), derived from bone marrow, plays an indispensable role in initiating and promoting abnormal tumor vasculogenesis by either secreting paracrine factors or by incorporating directly into the vasculature [6,7]. Stromal cell de- rived factor-1 (SDF-1) is a chemokine that is thought to be associ ated with recruitment of EPCs [8]. Therefore, SDF-1 could induce differentiation and proliferation of endothelial cells along with its synergistic effect on VEGF on inducing neo-angiogenesis [9]. There exist a few literatures investigating the role of EPCs in the cAVMs, therefore, we did a systematic review to understand the molecular impact of EPCs in influencing the disease progression and vascular remodeling [10]. Methods A systematic search of electronic databases which included “PubMed”, “EMBASE”, “Google Scholar”, and “Science Direct” from January 1st, 1990 to May 31st, 2019. Different MeSH terms were searched which included, “Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs)”, “Arteriovenous Malformations”, and “Stromal-cell derived factor-1”. The studies investigating the role of EPCs in cAVMs in humans were Abstract Background: The angiogenesis in Cerebral Arteriovenous malformations (cAVMs) may occur through activation of chemokines [stromal-cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1)], which ultimately recruit endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for aberrant neovascularization. Thus, we determined the role of EPCs in the vasculogenesis of cAVMs. Methods: Literature search was made through electronic database on “PubMed”, “EMBASE”, “Google Scholar”, and “Science Direct” from 1990- 2019 using MeSH headings of “Endothelial Progenitor Cells”, “Arteriovenous Malformation”, and “Stromal-cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1)” using Boolean operator “and”/”or”. The inclusion criterion included human experimental studies on EPCs in the cAVMs. Results: Histo morphological characteristics of vasculogenesis, both quantitatively and qualitatively, are pivotal in determining the prognosis of patients with AVMs. cAVMs patients have higher expression of markers of EPCs precursors, which is characterized by stem cell (CD133), endothelial (VEGF-2, CD31, and/or VE-cadherin), and hematopoietic cell markers (CD31). The SDF-1 was co-expressed with CD31+, predominantly on the endothelium of the vessel wall, and recruit ECPs from the peripheral cells to the target tissues thus leads to active remodeling and angiogenesis. A positive correlation exists between the VEGF- A (r=0.53) or HIF-1 α (r=0.43) and SDF-1 α. Conclusion: The EPCs plays an important role in the vasculogenesis of cAVMs lesions through activation by SDF-1/CXCR4 pathway. Therefore, further experimental studies are needed to formulate a therapy targeting these EPCs in the management of patients with cAVMs. Keywords: Arteriovenous Malformations; Endothelial cell; Precursor cells