Impairment of Endothelial Cell Differentiation From Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

The article focuses on study which determined whether impaired differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into endothelial cells in systemic sclerosis (SSc) might contribute to disease pathogenesis by decreasing endothelial repair. The study found that MSCs from SSc patients displayed the same phenotype and clonogenic activity as those from controls and the addition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and stromal cell-derived factor 1 to cultured SSc EL-MSCs increased their angiogenic potential less than that in controls.