Regulation of EPCs: The Gateway to Blood Vessel Formation

Figure 4

Regulation of EPC/EC state. The regulation of EPC/EC state is important as it can regulate cellular phenotype and function. There are a number of transcription factors which when active maintain EPCs in a progenitor state. They include Klf4, ld1, Nanog and SK-1 and when these are down regulated EPC phenotype and function can be altered resulting in EC differentiation. In addition, FOXO1, FOXO3a, Klf2, GATA2, PPARα and PPARγ have been shown to mediate the differentiation of EPCs to acquire characteristics of mature ECs.