Figure 4.

Initial fate of entrapped cells. Multicolor in vivo fluorescence imaging of MSCs in cremaster muscle. The CMFDA-labeled MSCs are green fluorescent (third row), whereas the microvascular basement membrane was stained red with rhodamine-labeled BSL I (second row). The MSCs were double-labeled with DAPI for nuclear staining (blue, top row). The bottom rows represent fused images. a, At 24 hours, the MSCs were spread out on the luminal side of the microvessels with preserved cytoplasmic and nuclear morphology. b, Heavily fragmented cells at 24 hours, with nuclear condensation (arrows) suggestive of apoptosis. c, At 72 hours, most persisting cells were morphologically intact, with preserved nuclear morphology. Scale bar = 50 µm.