They are residents of adult vasculature and are also thought to migrate to areas of injury as one form of circulating endothelial cell.
[2] ECFCs are named for their ability to form colonies of cells which progress rapidly to capillary-like networks in vitro when cultured in biopolymer matrix, and in vivo.
In contrast, other cells that fit the phenotypic profile for an ECFC but do not maintain the same level of activity are LPP-ECFCs.
[5] They have been identified by marker analysis as lin- (lineage negative) CD31+, CD105+, Sca-1+, CD117 (ckit)+ and thought have the ability to generate functional vasculature from single cells.
[6] ECFCs have been shown to decline in number and clonal ability with age or peripheral arterial disease, though are increased with acute myocardial infarction.