Described herein are compositions, kits and methods for stimulating angiogenic functions of stem cells and/or progenitor cells having pro-angiogenic potential (e.g., endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)) before transplantation (e.g., ex vivo cell therapy) based on the discovery that functional recovery of CD34+ cells from coronary artery disease (CAD) patients is improved by transfection of antagomirs against one or more miRs of a plurality of miRs identified to be over-expressed in cells from CAD patients. Described herein are methods to recover the functions of EPCs isolated from patients with cardiovascular disease (e.g., CAD or peripheral artery disease (PAD)) by bioengineering the cells with antagomirs and/or premirs to specific micro-RNAs. The bioengineered cells can then be used to treat patients with ischemic or ischemic-related disease (e.g., CAD or PAD) by autologous stem cell therapy.
