A, Human wild-type VE-cadherin promoter and truncated promoter constructs driving luciferase reporter gene. B, Time-line of transfection and luciferase assay. C, Indicated constructs were transiently transfected into ECs together with a tracer amount of β-galactosidase. Fold-luciferase activity is shown as mean ± s.e.m. *p < 0.05 vs control (untreated) group; **p <0.01 vs control (without reporter construct) calculated from three independent experiments, each carried out in triplicate. D and E, Transfection efficiency with or without addition of WNT3A was determined by staining with X-gal.