Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Oct 26, 2015; 7(10): 583-593
Published online Oct 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i10.583
Published online Oct 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i10.583
Intimal pericytes as the second line of immune defence in atherosclerosis
Ekaterina A Ivanova, Department of Development and Regeneration, Biomedical Sciences Group, KU Leuve, Leuven, Belgium
Yuri V Bobryshev, Faculty of Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
Yuri V Bobryshev, School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown NSW 2560, Australia
Alexander N Orekhov, Laboratory of Angiopathology, Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 125315 Moscow, Russia
Alexander N Orekhov, Institute for Atherosclerosis Research, Skolkovo Innovative Center, 121609 Moscow, Russia
Alexander N Orekhov, Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
Author contributions: Ivanova EA, Bobryshev YV and Orekhov AN conceived the issues which formed the content of the manuscript and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by The Russian Scientific Foundation, Moscow, Russian Federation, No. 14-15-00112.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interests.
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/
Correspondence to: Yuri V Bobryshev, PhD, Faculty of Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, High Street, Gate 9, Kensington, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia. y.bobryshev@unsw.edu.au
Telephone: +61-2-93851217 Fax: +61-2-93851217
Received: June 3, 2015
Peer-review started: June 3, 2015
First decision: July 6, 2015
Revised: August 31, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 16, 2015
Published online: October 26, 2015
Peer-review started: June 3, 2015
First decision: July 6, 2015
Revised: August 31, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 16, 2015
Published online: October 26, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Intimal stellate cells, expressing smooth muscle α-actin that co-express antigen 3G5 antigen (known to be specific for pericytes), reside in the intima of human large arteries. There cells have been defined as “pericytes-like satellite cells” or “intimal pericytes”. Because of the peculiarities of the distribution of these cells and because of the current lack of our knowledge about the spectrum of the expression of other pericyte-associated markers in the arterial wall, it is reasonable to avoiding at this time to identify smooth muscle α-actin(+)/3G5 antigen(+) stellate-shaped cells as true pericytes. The review highlights the importance of intimal pericytes in atherosclerosis.