{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:34:44Z","timestamp":1760150084236,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,19]],"date-time":"2023-10-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1697673600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University Medical Centre Ljubljana","award":["TP 20220018","TP 20180022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TP 20220018","TP 20180022"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a globally prevalent problem with limited treatment options, leaving up to a fifth of patients remediless. The emergence of new studies on cell therapy in recent years offers a new promising option for their treatment. Our aim was to explore how the number of CD34+ hematopoietic cells in the peripheral blood of PAD patients is associated with patients\u2019 functional as well as atherogenic factors. We selected 30 patients with advanced PAD, recorded their performance in a walking test in standard conditions and sampled their blood for further analysis with an emphasis on CD34+ cell selection and counting. No correlation of the CD34+ cell number was confirmed with any of the observed laboratory parameters. There was an association between the claudication distance and the number of CD34+ cells (r = \u22120.403, p = 0.046). The number of CD34+ cells differed between patients with and without type II diabetes (p = 0.071) and between active smokers, past smokers, and non-smokers (p = 0.035; p = 0.068, p = 0.051, respectively), with both smoking and presence of diabetes type II having a negative effect on the number of CD34+ cells. Our study demonstrated a dependence of the CD34+ cell number on the patient\u2019s characteristics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms242015346","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,19]],"date-time":"2023-10-19T02:54:43Z","timestamp":1697684083000},"page":"15346","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Smoking and Diabetes Attenuate Number of CD34+ Haematopoietic Stem Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Advanced Peripheral Artery Disease"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-9909-038X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Barbara","family":"Sernek","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-7106-9295","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rok","family":"Kamnikar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9907-3522","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miran","family":"Sebestjen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"},{"name":"Department of Vascular Diseases, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"},{"name":"Department of Cardiology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6411-4344","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anja","family":"Boc","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"},{"name":"Department of Vascular Diseases, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2171-7794","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vinko","family":"Boc","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Vascular Diseases, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1818","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCRESAHA.121.318535","article-title":"Epidemiology of Peripheral Artery Disease and Polyvascular Disease","volume":"128","author":"Aday","year":"2021","journal-title":"Circ. 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