Diverse contribution of bone marrow cells to neointimal hyperplasia after mechanical vascular injuries

We and others have suggested that bone marrow-derived progenitor cells may contribute to the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. On the other hand, it was reported that bone marrow cells do not participate substantially in vascular remodeling in other experimental systems. In this study, three distinct types of mechanical vascular injuries were induced in the same mouse whose bone marrow had been reconstituted with that of GFP or LacZ mice. All injuries are known to cause smooth muscle cell (SMC) hyperplasia. At 4 weeks after wire-mediated endovascular injury, a significant number of the neointimal and medial cells derived from bone marrow. In contrast, marker-positive cells were seldom detected in the lesion induced by perivascular cuff replacement. There were only a few bone marrow-derived cells in the neointima after ligation of the common carotid artery. These results indicate that the origin of intimal cells is diverse and that contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to neointimal hyperplasia depends on the type of model.