Objective
The concept of atherosclerotic plaque formation as the cause of obstructive vascular disease was proposed more than 100 years ago. Our understanding of atherosclerosis is being continually modified to include vessel wall responses from resident endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts and circulating blood cell responses from macrophages, lymphocytes and platelets.
However, a number of experimental/human studies have called into question the origin of traditionally accepted cellular constituents of atherosclerotic plaque, suggesting that circulating, bone marrow or extravascular sources of precursor cells may be crucially important in reconstituting/remodelling endothelial and vascular smooth muscle elements within the diseased vessel wall.
Recently our group isolated and characterized a putative common progenitor cell which possesses multiple angioblastic and myeloid markers. We have shown that committed endothelial and smooth progenitor cells (EPC and SPC) can be differentiated from vascular progenitor cells (VPC) in vitro and that these progenitors can be isolated from mice, rats, pigs and humans.
VPC exhibit multiple stem-like features, including clonogenic expansion capacity, unlimited self-renewal, expression of high levels of telomerase and vascular reconstitution capacity. Importantly, adult VPC plasticity appears driven not only by traditional vascular growth or differentiation factors but also by cell-cell contact activation. Study of VPC plasticity may therefore allow fundamental new insights into progenitor composition and remodelling of atherosclerotic plaque.
Currently nothing is known about the mobilization, lineage differentiation, homing or integration of these cells in experimental models of atherosclerosis. Therefore the overall objective of this proposal will be to determine the biology of VPC in experimental atherosclerosis, and the therapeutic potential of VPC when used to treat obstructive vascular disease and its complications.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine angiology vascular diseases
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine cardiology cardiovascular diseases arteriosclerosis
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies stem cells
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2004-MOBILITY-12
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
IRG - Marie Curie actions-International re-integration grants
Coordinator
CORK
Ireland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.