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Fig. 3 | Arthritis Research & Therapy

Fig. 3

From: Impaired function of endothelial progenitor cells in children with primary systemic vasculitis

Fig. 3

The effect of tumour necrosis factor (TNF-α) on EPC vasculogenesis, adhesion and CD11b expression. EPCs were pre-treated with 10 ng/ml TNF-α for three days before plating for the Matrigel assay to study the chronic effect of TNF-α on EPC function. a and b Comparison of EPC with/without pre-treatment of TNF-α on cluster formation (a) and incorporation into HUVEC capillary networks (b) on Matrigel. The numbers of EPC clusters (a) were lower after pre-treatment with TNF-α (p = 0.008). EPC incorporation into HUVEC vascular networks on Matrigel (b) was also significantly reduced after pre-treatment with TNF-α (p = 0.02). c Effect of TNF-α on EPC adhesion to fibronectin or monolayers of activated HUVECs. EPCs were labeled with Dil-I-LDL and allowed to adhere for one h to fibronectin or a monolayer of TNF-α-activated HUVECs. Pretreatment with TNF-α resulted in significantly reduced EPC adherence to fibronectin (p = 0.02) or activated HUVEC monolayers (pretreated with TNF-α 50 ng/ml for six h; p = 0.04). d Representative flow cytometric profile of CD11b expression by EPC after pretreatment with TNF-α 10 ng/ml for three days (thick black tracing) compared with control (no TNF-α pre-treatment; broken tracing). EPC endothelial progenitor cells, HUVEC human umbilical vein endothelial cell

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