Page 26 - GTM-2-1

Global Translational Medicine

REVIEW ARTICLE
Role of stem cells in aortic aneurysm

4†
4†
Zhengyilei Wang 1,2,3 , Yuzhe Yin , Yuge Zhang , Aijuan Qu 1,2,3 , and Baoqi Yu 1,2,3 *
1 Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical
University, Beijing, 100069, China
2 Key Laboratory of Remodeling-Related Cardiovascular Diseases, Ministry of Education, Beijing
100069, China
3 Key Laboratory of Metabolic Disorder-Related Cardiovascular Diseases, Beijing, 100069, China
4 The Sixth Clinical Medical School, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China

Abstract

In recent years, aortic aneurysms (AAs) have attracted increasing attention due to
their asymptomatic onset and high mortality. In clinic, surgery and anti-hypertensive
or lipid-lowering medicine is usually applied in the treatments of AA. However,
AA is prone to relapse and sudden rupture may happen. Therefore, more effective
prevention and treatment methods are urgently needed. Stem cells are believed to
play a crucial role in vascular formation and regeneration of damaged tissues during
vascular disease progression. With the development of single-cell RNA sequencing
analysis, many populations of stem cells have been discovered in AA tissues.
Recent studies have demonstrated that they may participate in the occurrence or
development of AAs. Besides, there is a prospect in clinical treatment for AAs when
regenerative medicine with stem cells comes into the picture. This review mainly
† These authors contributed equally
to this work. discusses the latest findings on the crucial roles of stem cells in AAs as well as their
potential therapeutic strategies of stem cells, which provides some references for the
*Corresponding author:
Baoqi Yu prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of AAs. Further studies are needed to explore
(baoqiyu@ccmu.edu.cn) the novel application of stem cell therapies for AAs.
Citation: Wang Z, Yin Y, Zhang Y,
et al., 2023, Role of stem cells in Keywords: Stem cell; Abdominal aortic aneurysm; Thoracic aortic aneurysm
aortic aneurysm. Global Transl Med,
2(1): 241.
https://doi.org/10.36922/gtm.v2i1.241
Received: November 2, 2022
Accepted: January 6, 2023 1. Introduction
Published Online: January 19,
2023 Aortic aneurysm (AA) is a severe cardiovascular disease, which is usually asymptomatic
but has a very high natural mortality rate. AA-related mortality rate is estimated to be
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). [1]
This is an Open Access article approximately 200,000 people worldwide each year . Until now, the exact etiology of the
distributed under the terms of the AA has not been fully clarified. Impairment of the structural and functional integrity of
Creative Commons Attribution the aorta leads to aortic degeneration and biomechanical failure, which are main causes
License, permitting distribution, [2]
and reproduction in any medium, of the AA formation . Recently, many studies have reported that many types of stem
provided the original work is cells exist in the AA tissues and they can proliferate and differentiate into specific cell
properly cited. types. In adults, stem cells in vascular systems are mostly quiescent in their niches. But
Publisher’s Note: AccScience they can be activated in response to injury, such as AA, and participate in endothelial
Publishing remains neutral with repair and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) accumulation to form neointima . The
[3]
regard to jurisdictional claims in crucial roles of stem cells in the possible pathogenesis and treatments of the AA are
published maps and institutional
affiliations. outlined in the review.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/gtm.v2i1.241