Circulating endothelial progenitor cells and endothelial cells in moyamoya disease

Abstract

Abstract Introduction There is no well‐recognized biomarker for accurately predicting outcome in the presence of moyamoya disease ( MMD ), a progressive occlusive cerebrovascular disease of the internal carotid arteries or their branches. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of endothelial progenitor cells ( EPC s) and circulating endothelial cells ( CEC s) in MMD and correlate the findings with clinical features. Methods Patients with MMD ( n = 66) were compared with healthy controls ( n = 81). Blood samples were obtained from an antecubital vein and analyzed using flow cytometry. EPC s were defined as CD 31 + CD 45 dim CD 34 br CD 133 + and CEC s as CD 31 br CD 45 − CD 34 dim CD 133 − . Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were carried out. Results The CEC counts were significantly higher in the patients than in the controls ( p = 0.008). In multivariate analysis, EPC counts were independently associated with age of patients with MMD ( p = 0.049) and CEC counts were independently negatively associated with concomitant disease such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and coronary heart disease ( p = 0.034). Conclusions This is the first study to investigate the presence of CEC s in the plasma of patients with MMD , and the amount of CEC s was negatively correlated with concomitant disease in these patients.