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. 2011 May 26;6(5):e20540. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020540

Figure 5. Pericyte-like coverage of endothelial tube-like structures by vascular wall-derived MPSCs in vitro.

Figure 5

Isolated vascular wall-derived MPSCs (labelled red) are cultured alone or together with HUVEC (human umbilical cord endothelial cells; labelled green) on Matrigel. VW-MPSCs alone form cord-like structures (A) but VW-MPSCs together with HUVEC (B–I) form more prominent network suggesting capillary-like structures in phase contrast microscopy (B). Confocal microscopy analysis after 5–7 hours (C) and after 5 days (D–I) shows a tight association of VW-MPSCs to the capillary-like EC (D). Under additional application of VEGF-A (10 ng/ml) HUVEC form prominent capillary-like structures (green) which are covered by VW-MPSCs (red) (E–I). Higher magnification of these structures reveals a pericyte-like assembly (arrows) of VW-MPSCs to the tube like structures (F–I). Tight association of VW-MPSCs to the capillary-like EC can nicely be seen by combining fluorescence and phase contrast microscopy (H, I). Photographs representative for at least 3 independent experiments with similar results are shown. Bar A–C 50 µm; D,E, 100 µm, F–H15 µm, I 5 µm.