Indiana University School of Medicine Angio BioCore

In addition to possessing the in vitro and in vivo assays that define the endothelial progenitor outgrowth cells that possess in vivo vessel forming ability, the ABC recently stringently defined a population of pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic circulating hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (CHSPCs) that has been shown to regulate angiogenesis. Discovery of these novel CHSPC subsets demonstrates the uniqueness and strength of the approach by the ABC that requires both phenotypic and functional data to validate specific circulating cells that participate in new blood vessel formation.

The specific assays offered by the ABC function as quantitative analytical tools, potential biomarkers of several hematopoietic diseases, and as experimental platforms for understanding the basic mechanisms of angiogenesis and the interplay between the endothelial and hematopoietic systems. For example, not only are CHSPCs critical for normal and abnormal angiogenesis, but we and others have reported that certain endothelial cells are critical for CHSPC expansion ex vivo and that endothelial cells promote CHSPC engraftment post-ablation.

The ABC serves to directly perform all of the assays required to analyze research samples, and as a consultation, education, and new assay development site for scientists within and outside the IU School of Medicine and Indiana University.

Furthermore, the ABC is one of only five nationally recognized Core Centers of Excellence in Molecular Hematology by the National Institutes of Health and is a core of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI).