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World J Stem Cells. Jun 26, 2015; 7(5): 852-858
Published online Jun 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i5.852
Histone deacetylases and cardiovascular cell lineage commitment
Jun-Yao Yang, Qian Wang, Wen Wang, Ling-Fang Zeng
Jun-Yao Yang, Qian Wang, Laboratory Medicine Centre, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Jun-Yao Yang, Wen Wang, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary, University of London, E1 4NS London, United Kingdom
Jun-Yao Yang, Ling-Fang Zeng, Cardiovascular Division, King’s College London, SE5 9NU London, United Kingdom
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Supported by British Heart Foundation project, No. PG13-63-30419.
Conflict-of-interest: None of the authors have interest of conflicts.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Ling-Fang Zeng, Cardiovascular Division, King’s College London, Strand, SE5 9NU London, United Kingdom. lingfang.zeng@kcl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44-20-78485286 Fax: +44-20-78485296
Received: January 13, 2015
Peer-review started: January 16, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: February 14, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: June 26, 2015
Processing time: 167 Days and 11.5 Hours
Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), which include all diseases of the heart and circulation system, are the leading cause of deaths on the globally. During the development of CVDs, choric inflammatory, lipid metabolism disorder and endothelial dysfunction are widely recognized risk factors. Recently, the new treatment for CVDs that designed to regenerate the damaged myocardium and injured vascular endothelium and improve recovery by the use of stem cells, attracts more and more public attention. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a family of enzymes that remove acetyl groups from lysine residues of histone proteins allowing the histones to wrap the DNA more tightly and commonly known as epigenetic regulators of gene transcription. HDACs play indispensable roles in nearly all biological processes, such as transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression and developmental events, and have originally shown to be involved in cancer and neurological diseases. HDACs are also found to play crucial roles in cardiovascular diseases by modulating vascular cell homeostasis (e.g., proliferation, migration, and apoptosis of both ECs and SMCs). This review focuses on the roles of different members of HDACs and HDAC inhibitor on stem cell/ progenitor cell differentiation toward vascular cell lineages (endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and Cardiomyocytes) and its potential therapeutics.

Keywords: Histone deacetylases; Stem cell; Endothelial cell; Smooth muscle cell; Cardiovascular diseases

Core tip: Stem cell differentiation toward vascular cell lineages is an area of important active research at present. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are found to play important roles in cardiovascular diseases. Through modulating the homeostasis of acetylation status in histone and non-histone proteins and regulating grow factor activities, HDACs participate in stem cell differentiation and vascular cell homeostasis. In this review we provide an update on the roles of HDACs and HDAC inhibitors on stem cell differentiation toward vascular cell lineages.