Introduction: A large number of cardiovascular disorders and abnormalities, notably accelerated vascular deficiencies could be related to aging changes and increased length of life. During the past decades, the discovery of different stem cells facilitates ongoing attempts for attenuating many disorders, especially in vascular beds. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are a subtype of stem cells that have potent capacity to differentiate into mature endothelial cells (ECs). However, some documented studies reported an age-related decline in proliferation and function of many stem cells. There is no data on aging effect upon proliferation and morphological feature of EPCs. Methods: To show aging effect on EPCs proliferation and multipotentiality, bone marrow samples were provided from old and young cases in three different species; human, mouse and dog. After 7 days of culture, the cell morphology and clonogenic capacity were evaluated. We also calculated the mean number of colonies both in bone marrow samples from old and young subjects. To confirm the cell phenotype, isolated cells were immune-phenotyped by a panel of antibodies against Tie-2, CD133 and CD309 markers. Results: Our results showed that EPCs exhibited prominent spindle form in all bone marrow samples from young cases while the cell shape became more round by aging. Notably, the number of colonies was reduced in aged samples as compared to parallel young subject samples (P < 0.05). We also detected that the expression of endothelial related markers diminished by aging. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the age-related vascular abnormalities could be presumably related to the decline in stemness capacity of EPCs.
Keywords: Aging; Dog; Endothelial Progenitor Cells; Human; Mouse.