Figure 3

Epithelial cell (EC) production of angiogenic molecules when co-cultured with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from healthy controls (HCs) and systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. (a-c) Expression of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB in ECs, before and after co-culture with MSCs. SSc-ECs showed a higher amount of mRNA expression levels of both TGF-β (a) and PDGF-BB (c) compared to the expression levels of HC-ECs, when cultured alone. After co-culture with HC- and SSc-MSCs a significant increase of these expressions was observed, compared to the levels when ECs were cultured alone, the higher levels observed when SSc-ECs were in the co-cultures. All the results are expressed as median (range) of triplicate experiments (**P = 0.0002; ***P <0.0001). (b) Western blot analysis of TGF-β and PDGF-R protein in ECs, confirmed those observed at molecular level Pictures are representative of all experiments.