Abstract: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are the precursor cells of the vascular endothelial cells. EPCs is now being more and more introduced into the basic research in medicine, cell biology and other fields about vascular disease with the study of its culture, identification, homing and differentiation. Studies have shown that endothelial progenitor cells can promote wound healing and the recovery of vascular function, becoming a new method to construct cardiovascular tissue engineering. This paper reviewed the biological characteristics of EPCs and its application in animal ischemia models and clinical trial. The paper also analyzed the challenge of EPCs application. Finally, we prospected the research direction of EPCs in the future.

Key words: endothelial progenitor cell, exvivo expansion, biological properties, vasculogenesis, clinical application

摘要： 内皮祖细胞是血管内皮细胞的前体细胞，随着对其培养、鉴定、归巢和分化等研究的进行，内皮祖细胞被越来越多的引入到医学、细胞生物学等相关血管疾病的研究之中，内皮祖细胞可促进创伤愈合和血管功能恢复，是构建心血管组织工程的新力量。就内皮祖细胞的生物学特性及其在动物肢体缺血模型和临床实验中的应用进行了概述，并分析了内皮祖细胞应用所面临的挑战，最后对未来的研究方向进行了展望。

关键词: 内皮祖细胞, 体外扩增, 生物学特性, 血管发生, 临床应用