Pericyte-targeting drug delivery and tissue engineering

Abstract

Pericytes are contractile mural cells that wrap around the endothelial cells of capillaries and venules. Depending on the triggers by cellular signals, pericytes have specific functionality in tumor microenvironments, properties of potent stem cells, and plasticity in cellular pathology. These features of pericytes can be activated for the promotion or reduction of angiogenesis. Frontier studies have exploited pericyte-targeting drug delivery, using pericyte-specific peptides, small molecules, and DNA in tumor therapy. Moreover, the communication between pericytes and endothelial cells has been applied to the induction of vessel neoformation in tissue engineering. Pericytes may prove to be a novel target for tumor therapy and tissue engineering. The present paper specifically reviews pericyte-specific drug delivery and tissue engineering, allowing insight into the emerging research targeting pericytes.

Keywords:

• pericytes
• pericyte-targeting drug delivery
• tissue engineering
• platelet-derived growth factor
• angiogenesis
• vascular remodeling

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2015R1C1A2A01053307).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.