Effects of peripheral blood monocytes on human vascular cell proliferation

Abstract Incubated human peripheral blood monocytes release a factor(s) which specifically stimulates homologous vascular smooth muscle (SMC) but not endothelial cells (EC) to proliferate in vitro. Conditioned medium from activated monocytes significantly ( P P P P These findings suggest that blood monocytes may play a key and until now unsuspected role in arterial smooth muscle cell proliferation, a recognized event in the initial stages of atherogenesis.