In vitro Co-culture of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Endothelial Colony Forming Cells.

The discovery of endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) with robust self-renewal and de novo vessel formation potentials suggests that ECFCs can be an excellent cell source for cardiovascular diseases treatment through improving neovascularization in the ischemic tissues. However, their engraftment after transplantation resulted to be low. Previous studies showed mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) could improve the survival and capillary formation capacity of ECFCs in co-culture systems. In this article, we describe a protocol for in vitro co-culture of MSCs and ECFCs to prime ECFCs for better engraftment.