FIG. 6.

Endothelial-like cells obtained by culturing SSEA-4⁺hASCs in EGM-2 MV. Cells were able to (A) uptake acetylated low-density lipoprotein (ac-LDL) and (B) bind lectin from Ulex europeus-1. Cell nuclei were counterstained with DAPI. When seeded on Matrigel at different passages, cells had the capacity to form capillary-like structures (C) similarly to HUVECS, used as control (F). Contrarily, SSEA-4⁺hASCs cultured in α-MEM, independently of the passage, aggregated in small clumps without any tubular-like structure appearance (D). hASCs cultured in EGM-2 MV were only able to form these structures on Matrigel at passage 1 (E). These are likely to result from the organization of the microvascular endothelial cells present in the stromal vascular fraction of the adipose tissue and proved to be present at this stage of culture as CD31⁺ cells. Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/tea