Therapeutic revascularisation of ischaemic tissue: the opportunities and challenges for therapy using vascular stem/progenitor cells

Table 1 Characteristics of stem/progenitor cells that can be used for therapeutic revascularisation of ischaemic tissue

Cell type	Proliferative potential	Risk of tumour formation	Capacity to differentiate into vascular cells	Engraftment/angiogenic potential *in vivo*
Pluripotent stem cells
Embryonic stem cells	+++	+++	+	+
Induced pluripotent stem cells	+++	+++	+	+
Adult stem cells
Mesenchymal stem cells	+	+/-	++	++
Multipotent adult progenitor cells	++	+/-	++	++
Endothelial progenitor cells
Early endothelial progenitor cells	+/-	+	+/-	+
Outgrowth endothelial cells	++	+/-	+++	+++

+, ++, +++, Weak/low, moderate and high potential, respectively; +/-, little or no potential

ISSN: 1757-6512