Experimental study on dynamics and biological significancd of endothelial progenitor cell in pan-vasculitis associated with Kawasaki disaase

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Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile disorder and is characterized by systemic vasculitis that affects infants and young children. Recently, it has been reported, in KD, that endothelial dysfunction continued even in the chronic stage, resulting into being one of the risk factors for developing atherosclerosis. In this study, for evaluating the dynamics and biological significant of endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) for repairment and regeneration of endothelial cells damaged, we studied an efficacy of the improved methods for measuring the circulating EPCs in the KD model animal. The severe coronary pan-vasculitis as well as in KD, in the animal models, was induced by the administration of horse serum as we previously reported. It was possible to measure the EPCs even in the small amount of blood from the mouse, using the FACS analysis with the markers of CD31 and AC133. EPCs in the blood significantly increased in the KD animal models in the acute stage. Furthermore, circulating EPCs were still higher in the value even in the convalescent stage. CD31-positive EPC-like cells were histologically revealed in the endothelial cell layer and sub-endothelial layer in the acute stage, and even in the convalescent stage. From these results, it was revealed that the dynamic changes of EPCs in the peripheral blood indicated well the histological dynamics of EPCs in the endothelial layer in the KD animal model.