Adult venous endothelium is a niche for highly proliferative and vasculogenic endothelial colony-forming cells

Despite their promise for treating vascular disease, cell therapies involving endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) have not been feasible, partly because of a lack of autologous sources. We show here that adult great saphenous vein is a niche for ECFCs that exhibit a comparable phenotype to ECFCs from CB. These data provide a platform to begin investigations into the feasibility of using these cells in autologous cell-based therapies for vascular diseases.