Pericytes: A ubiquitous source of multipotent adult tissue stem cells

There is a perivascular reservoir of stem/progenitor cells for cellular therapies. Bone marrow- and adipose-derived mesenchymal progenitor/stem cells possess great promise for regenerative medicine, immunomodulation, and cancer-targeting therapies. The authors describe working toward a definition of the pericyte and discuss putative markers that identify pericytes. These markers include alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA) and desmin expression, neuron-glial 2 (NG2) and nestin expression, expression of CD146 and CD106, and expression of MSC markers and the mucosialin CD34. The authors then go into the developmental origins of pericytes. Pericytes may prove to be promising tools for future regenerative applications because they represent a ubiquitous source of mesenchymal progenitors. However, they are comprised of a heterogeneous mixture of specialized cells that possess phenotypic variability among tissues and even throughout the vascular tree.