The correlation between the number of endothelial progenitor cells in the peripheral blood and abdominal aortic aneurysm

This study was to investigate the correlation between the number of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in peripheral blood and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), and provide a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of AAA. Patients with AAA evaluated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from June 2018 to October 2018 (n = 7) were included in this study. All patients were confirmed as AAA by vascular CTA with an increase of more than 50% of the abdominal aortic diameter. Patients (n = 7) with normal abdominal aorta diameter were included as control group with matching age, sex, blood pressure, and blood sugar concentration between experimental and control groups. Mononuclear cells were collected by density gradient centrifugation, stained by CD34-FITC and CD309-PE antibodies, and analyzed by flow cytometry. The number of EPCs in the peripheral blood of patients with AAA (0.874 ± 0.129‰) was significantly lower than that in the control group (1.420 ± 0.289‰) (P < .01). The number of EPCs may be used as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of AAA following treatment.