Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2019; 11(12): 1104-1114
Published online Dec 26, 2019. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i12.1104
Mechanoresponse of stem cells for vascular repair
Ge-Er Tian, Jun-Teng Zhou, Xiao-Jing Liu, Yong-Can Huang
Ge-Er Tian, Xiao-Jing Liu, Regenerative Medicine Research Center of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Jun-Teng Zhou, Department of Cardiology of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Yong-Can Huang, Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Orthopaedic Regenerative Technologies, National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Orthopaedic Biomaterials, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 11672197 and No. 81702171; the Shenzhen Double Chain Project for Innovation and Development Industry supported by the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Shenzhen, No. 201806081018272960.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yong-Can Huang, PhD, Associate Professor, Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Orthopaedic Regenerative Technologies, Orthopaedic Research Center, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518036, Guangdong Province, China. y.c.huang@connect.hku.hk
Telephone: +86-755-83923333 Fax: +86-755-83061340
Received: February 28, 2019
Peer-review started: March 4, 2019
First decision: August 1, 2019
Revised: August 25, 2019
Accepted: September 13, 2019
Article in press: September 13, 2019
Published online: December 26, 2019
Abstract

Stem cells have shown great potential in vascular repair. Numerous evidence indicates that mechanical forces such as shear stress and cyclic strain can regulate the adhesion, proliferation, migration, and differentiation of stem cells via serious signaling pathways. The enrichment and differentiation of stem cells play an important role in the angiogenesis and maintenance of vascular homeostasis. In normal tissues, blood flow directly affects the microenvironment of vascular endothelial cells (ECs); in pathological status, the abnormal interactions between blood flow and vessels contribute to the injury of vessels. Next, the altered mechanical forces are transduced into cells by mechanosensors to trigger the reformation of vessels. This process occurs when signaling pathways related to EC differentiation are initiated. Hence, a deep understanding of the responses of stem cells to mechanical stresses and the underlying mechanisms involved in this process is essential for clinical translation. In this the review, we provide an overview of the role of stem cells in vascular repair, outline the performance of stem cells under the mechanical stress stimulation, and describe the related signaling pathways.

Keywords: Stem cells, Shear stress, Strain stress, Vascular repair

Core tip: Stem cells and biomechanical stresses are very important for the success of stem cell-based therapy. In this review paper, we first summarize the application of stem cells for vascular repair, then discuss the response of stem cells to the biomechanical stresses in blood vessels, and finally describe the underlying mechanisms. This paper should be very beneficial to researchers in this field, as it provides a deeper understanding of the interactions between stem cells and biomechanical stresses for vascular repair.