An Artificial Niche for Circulating Endothelial Cells During Tumor Angiogenesis Mediated by Prostate Cancer Stem Cells

Abstract
Angiogenesis research investigates the formation of new blood vessels in wound healing, tumour growth and embryonic development. The present paper describes the application of circulating endothelial progenitor (CEP) cells expressing CD133 and VEGFR2. To do so, the CEPs were isolated from human peripheral blood and expanded in an artificial niche using in a transwell plate. The migration, adhesion, homing and differentiation of CEPs towards prostate cancer stem cells were studied. This model is more suitable to study tumor metastasis for the development of novel therapeutics.