FIG. 4.

Versican mRNA and protein are expressed in bi-cell vascular patches but to a greater extent in patches with HS-27a hMSCs. An antibody against human versican (hVC) demonstrated accumulation of versican in H:HS-27a patches through 8 days of culture, whereas versican protein was mostly absent in H:HS-5 patches (A). Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction for the four splice variants of versican (V0, V1, V2, and V3) shows that V0 and V1 expression predominate (B; *p < 0.05 vs. H:HS-5 isoform on same day). Both hMSC clones show versican expression at day 0 (input cells), but versican mRNA is consistently more abundant in patches containing HS-27a hMSCs throughout 8 days of culture. Scale bar applies to all panels of A.