Abstract

Perivascular cells have a common origin from embryonic stem cells and blood vessels provide a niche for the maintenance of their stemness. Embryonic markers expression of undifferentiated cells, as well as, the wide variety of cellular phenotypes generated from pericytes, could be explained by the ability of these cells to be induced to a state of "stemness" when treated with appropriate factors. Our findings describe the expression of cells with cytoplasmic OCT-4 in perivascular anatomical location where their niche region is in the intima of the aorta in rats. In vitro isolated cells by explant method that promotes the isolation of migratory cells from tissues show an elongated cytoplasm phenotype, expressing aSMA, PDGFRa & b where the last two are specific markers of pericytes. These cells present a translocated nuclear variant of OCT-4 that has been described as the master regulator of self-renewal processes and pluripotency. The expression of OCT-4 further confirms and extends the observations obtained in our previous research and proves that stem cells found in the blood vessels in a microenvironment that probably allows them to survive and remain at rest as a type of quiescent stem cell.