Hyperglycemia and associated biochemical alterations damage vascular wall cells, especially the endothelium, leading to an increase risk of cardiovascular events. In the last decade, accumulating data suggest that vascular repair mechanisms are important to maintain normal homeostasis of the arterial wall and to prevent development of pathologic processes, such as atherosclerosis and restenosis. Diabetes, through impairment of vascular stem and progenitor cells, entails a defective repair of endothelial injury. The biochemical and cellular mechanisms that account for reduced or functionally impaired vascular progenitor cells in diabetes are not fully elucidated, and this is an intense area of research. Additionally, pharmacologic ways to favorably modulate endogenous reparative/regenerative processes are of particular interest in the setting of experimental and clinical diabetes research.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the molecular and cellular aspects underlying defective vascular repair by means of stem/progenitor cells in diabetes, as well as development of interventions to reverse it. Additional areas of interest include -OMICs approaches, such as genomic-, proteomic-, or metabolomics-based discovery of new pathways in altered diabetic stem/progenitor cells.

We are particularly interested in articles describing new quantitative or qualitative aspects of vascular stem/progenitor cell defects in diabetes and modalities for reversal of these alterations by exploiting available therapeutic approaches or novel molecular targets, such as epigenetic regulators, microRNAs, and oxidative stress determinants. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Phenotypic specification of stem/progenitor cells affected by the diabetic state, with a specific focus on endothelial, smooth muscle, osteogenic, and adipogenic precursors
• In vitro and in vivo strategies to reverse alterations of vascular progenitor cells in diabetes
• New technologies to study vascular stem/progenitor cells in diabetes, at all levels, from flow cytometry to cell culture and in vivo tracking methods
• Pharmacologic modulation of vascular stem/progenitor cells in the setting of diabetes
• The role of inflammation and inflammatory pathways on diabetic vascular stem/progenitor cells
• Relationships between aging and the diabetic milieu in inducing vascular progenitor cell defects, with focus on longevity determinant pathways (e.g., sirtuins, AMPK, and oxidative stress.)
• In vivo models of vascular stem cell therapy for diabetic complications, both micro- and macrovascular

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