Smoking and Diabetes Attenuate Number of CD34+ Haematopoietic Stem Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Advanced Peripheral Artery Disease

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2023-10, Vol.24 (20), p.15346
• Main Authors: Sernek, Barbara, Kamnikar, Rok, Sebestjen, Miran, Boc, Anja, Boc, Vinko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Angiogenesis; Atherosclerosis; Bioavailability; Bone marrow; Cardiac patients; Cardiovascular disease; Coronary vessels; Diabetes; DNA methylation; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; Health aspects; Hematopoietic stem cells; Intermittent claudication; Ischemia; Nitric oxide; Oxidative stress; Patients; Prevention; Risk factors; Smoking; Stem cells; Vein & artery diseases
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms242015346

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a globally prevalent problem with limited treatment options, leaving up to a fifth of patients remediless. The emergence of new studies on cell therapy in recent years offers a new promising option for their treatment. Our aim was to explore how the number of CD34+ hematopoietic cells in the peripheral blood of PAD patients is associated with patients’ functional as well as atherogenic factors. We selected 30 patients with advanced PAD, recorded their performance in a walking test in standard conditions and sampled their blood for further analysis with an emphasis on CD34+ cell selection and counting. No correlation of the CD34+ cell number was confirmed with any of the observed laboratory parameters. There was an association between the claudication distance and the number of CD34+ cells (r = −0.403, p = 0.046). The number of CD34+ cells differed between patients with and without type II diabetes (p = 0.071) and between active smokers, past smokers, and non-smokers (p = 0.035; p = 0.068, p = 0.051, respectively), with both smoking and presence of diabetes type II having a negative effect on the number of CD34+ cells. Our study demonstrated a dependence of the CD34+ cell number on the patient’s characteristics.