Figure 4
Capacity of monocytic EPC-derived conditioned medium to promote tubular formations in culture of HUVECs in Matrigel®. (a) Representative images of Matrigel® cultures of HUVECs in the presence of culture supernatants of HUVECs (104) alone, HUVECs (104) plus monocytic EPCs (104) from an SSc patient, and HUVECs (104) plus monocytic EPCs (104) from a healthy control. Scale bars = 500 μm. (b) Capacity to enhance tubular formation was expressed as the ratio of total tube length in the culture with conditioned medium of HUVECs plus monocytic EPCs to the length in the culture with conditioned medium of HUVECs alone, and compared between SSc patients and healthy controls. Horizontal bars indicate the mean values.