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Abstract
Chronic ischemic wounds continue to frustrate surgeons because few therapies exist that induce the repair of compromised endothelium or damaged vasculature. One approach to this challenge is to stimulate vasculogenesis, where endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) home to sites of ischemia to restore adequate tissue perfusion. While hypoxia and inflammation are known to affect EPC homing, other stimuli are important to investigate as potential therapeutic targets. One such stimulus may be radiation therapy. Although radiation has traditionally been thought to be harmful on a cellular level (e.g. oncologic therapy), recent data demonstrates that low dose radiation may stimulate neovascularization, suggesting a potential role in revascularization therapy. Therefore, we propose that low dose radiation can exert a vasculogenic effect by stimulating EPCs to home to a site of vascular ischemia. We hypothesize that radiation stimulates EPC mobilization through the stabilization of HIF-I, a protein that transcriptionally activates chemokines responsible for initiating vasculogenesis.