Figure 2.

In response to in vivo exposure to hypoxia, VSELs are mobilized from bone marrow (BM) to peripheral blood (PB), and stem cell chemoattractant gradients appear in plasma of mice. Panels A-C demonstrate that hypoxia causes a significant reduction in BM VSEL number, a concurrent increase in PB VSEL count (although not reaching statistical significance) and an overall significant increase in the relative ratio of these stem cells in PB vs. BM. Panels D-F show increased protein expression of three stem cell chemoattractants in response to hypoxia, stromal cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF, does not reach statistical significance). P-values were calculated using unpaired Student's t-test. Box and whisker plots show the upper and lower quartiles (box) and the maximum and minimum values (whiskers).