Clinicians regularly transplant omental pedicles to repair a wide variety of injured tissues, but the
basic mechanism underlying this efficacious procedure is not understood. One possibility that has
not been addressed is the ability of omentum to directly contribute regenerative cells to injured tissues.
We hypothesized that if omental progenitor cells could be mobilized to incorporate into damaged
tissue, the power of this therapy would be greatly expanded. Labelled omental grafts were transplanted
into a murine carotid artery injury model. Selected grafts were treated with thymosin b4 (Tb4) prior to
transplantation to investigate the effects of chemical potentiation on healing. We found treatment of
grafts with Tb4-induced progenitor cells to fully integrate into the wall of injured vessels and
differentiate into vascular smooth muscle. Myographic studies determined that arteries receiving
Tb4-stimulated grafts were functionally indistinguishable from uninjured controls. Concurrent
in vitro analyses showed that Tb4 promoted proliferation, migration and trans-differentiation of cells
via AKT signalling. This study is the first to demonstrate that omentum can provide progenitor cells
for repair, thus revealing a novel and naturally occurring source of vascular smooth muscle for use in
cell-based therapies. Furthermore, our data show that this system can be optimized with inducing
factors, highlighting a more powerful therapeutic potential than that of its current clinical application.
This is a paradigm-setting concept that lays the foundation for the use of chemical genetics to enhance
therapeutic outcomes in a myriad of fields. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.