Endothelial regeneration in repair from vascular injury and stem cell biology

Professor Teruo Inoue and his collaborators are exploring repair from vascular and myocardial injury in the context of stem cell biology in work that is set to make waves in regenerative medicine. This research involves endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for vascular repair, adipose-derived regenerative cells (ADRCs) for angiogenesis and multilineage differentiating stress enduring cell (Muse) cells for myocardial repair. Inoue and his collaborators are also investigating the 'wound repair priming' phenomenon with a view to overcoming the challenge of the inconsistent capacities of angiogenesis due to individual differences in cell quality. The researchers found that the ADRCs (also called adipose-derived stromal fractions: SVFs) obtained from subcutaneous fat after manipulation caused by surgical injury as well as ischaemia showed higher angiogenetic ability. The researchers plan to pharmacologically reproduce wound repair priming in order to facilitate more consistent cell therapy using ADRCs. The team is also exploring other promising functional analysis methods for stem cells, including comprehensive gene analysis using single cell RNA sequence (scRNA seq), which the researchers plan to apply to Muse cells. In addition to Muse cell research targeting myocardial repair, the team will also conduct Muse cell vascular research as they believe that Muse cell treatment holds great promise for the repair of injured-vessel sites. Ultimately, Inoue and his collaborators hope their work will significantly impact medical research and clinical medicine.