Vascular endothelial-cadherin (VE-cadherin) is exclusively expressed on the late endothelial progenitor cells (EPC). Therefore, VE-cadherin could be an ideal target surface molecule to capture circulating late EPC. In the present study, we evaluated whether anti-VE-cadherin antibody-coated stents (VE-cad stents) might accelerate endothelial recovery and reduce neointimal formation more than anti-CD34 antibody-coated stents (CD34 stents) through the superior ability to capture the late EPC. The stainless steel stents were coated with anti-human VE-cadherin antibodies or anti-human CD34 antibodies under the same condition. In vitro, VE-cad stents showed higher number of adhering EPC (823.6 ± 182.2 versus 379.2 ± 137.2 cells per HPF, p < 0.001). VE-cad stents also demonstrated better specific capturing of cells with endothelial lineage markers than CD34 stents did in flow cytometric analysis. VE-cad stents showed more effective re-endothelialization after 1 h, 24 h, and 3 days in vivo. At 42 days, VE-cad stents demonstrated significantly smaller neointima area (0.92 ± 0.38 versus 1.24 ± 0.41 mm(2), p = 0.002) and significantly lower PCNA positive cells in neointima (1684.8 ± 658.8/mm(2) versus 2681.7 ± 375.1/mm(2), p = 0.008), compared with CD34 stents. In conclusion, VE-cad stents captured EPC and endothelial cells more selectively in vitro, accelerated re-endothelialization over stents, and reduced neointimal formation in vivo, compared with CD34 stents.
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