Cardiology Letters 2019, 28(6):218-226

Importance of hematopoietic stem cells in the pathogenesis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases: the role of extracellular vesicles in the mechanism of their action

Barteková M^{1, 2}, Husseinová M¹, Radošinská J^{1, 2}

¹ Fyziologický ústav, Lekárska fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Bratislava

² Centra experimentálnej medicíny, Ústav pre výskum srdca, Slovenská akadémia vied, Bratislava, Slovenská republika

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) represent the only source of all blood elements. HSCs are present primarily in the bone marrow, but also in the peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood. As other cell types, HSCs are able to produce extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs released from the HSCs (or EVs produced by cells derived from HSCs) exert pleiotropic effects in the body: they contribute to the cell-to-cell communication, are proposed to be biomarkers of the condition of the bone marrow, and are also suggested to be potentially used for the prevention and/or treatment of different diseases including cardiovascular. At the same time, these EVs play an important role in various pathological processes and thus may serve as biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases, their prognosis, as well as the efficiency of applied therapy. Therefore, although this educative article is primarily aimed at summarizing the current knowledge about the EVs produced by the HSCs, the potential clinical relevance of HSC-EVs with emphasis on their role as biomarkers, and also regarding their therapeutic potential in cardiovascular diseases, should not be forgotten.

Keywords: hematopoietic stem cells; extracellular vesicles; cardioprotection; biomarkers

Published: June 1, 2019  Show citation