Abstract: There are four major populations of vascular-resident stem/progenitor cells, namely mesenchymal stem cells, smooth muscle progenitor cells, endothelial progenitor cells and pericytes, they have highly proliferative potential and differentiated clonogenic. Stem/progenitor cells can be fixed in a certain part of the vessels or enter in the peripheral circulation, and these cells in the vascular wall play an important role in post-injury angiogenesis and vascular regeneration after birth. This paper introduced the source, distribution and biological characteristics of these progenitor cells, and the impact on these progenitor cells in cardiovascular pathological conditions. And an overview about the complexity of the distribution and biological characteristics of these vascular stem/progenitor cells under pathological conditions was described. Finally, the role of vascular stem/progenitor cells was confirmed, and the prospect for future research was described.

Key words: stem/progenitor cells, vascular wall, blood vessels, vascular pathology, atherosclerosis

摘要： 血管壁中的干/祖细胞主要有骨髓间充质干细胞、周细胞、内皮祖细胞和平滑肌祖细胞4种，它们具有高度的增殖潜能和分化能力，这些细胞可以固定在某些部位也可以进入外周循环中，在出生后的血管发生和损伤后的血管新生中发挥重要的作用。分别介绍了以上几种祖细胞的来源、分布和生物学特性，以及在心血管病理状况下这些祖细胞所受到的影响，并概述了在病理状况下这些血管干/祖细胞之间在分布上和生物学特性方面的复杂性。最后肯定了血管干/祖细胞的作用，并对未来的研究进行了展望。

关键词: 干/祖细胞, 血管壁, 血管, 血管病变, 动脉粥样硬化