Human endothelial progenitor cells express a functional TRPV4 channel

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are mobilized into circulation to replace damaged endothelial and recapitulate the vascular network of injured tissues (Moccia F et al., 2014). Intracellular Ca(2+) signals are key to EPC activation, but it is yet to be elucidated whether they are endowed with the same blend of Ca(2+) –permeable channels expressed by mature endothelial cells. For instance, endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs), the only EPC subset truly committed to acquire a mature endothelial phenotype, lack canonical transient receptor potential channels 3, 5 and 6 (TRPC3, 5 and 6), which are widely distributed in vascular endothelium; on the other hand, they express a functional store-operated Ca(2+) entry (SOCE). The present study was undertaken to assess whether human circulating EPCs possess TRP vanilloid channel 4 (TRPV4), which plays a master signalling role in mature endothelium, by controlling both vascular remodelling and arterial pressure. W e found that EPCs express both TRPV4 mRNA and protein indicating that human circulating EPCs possess a functional TRPV4 protein before their engraftment into nascent vessels (Dragoni et al., 2014).