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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Basic Res Cardiol. 2012 Nov 9;108(1):310. doi: 10.1007/s00395-012-0310-4

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Schematic summarizing the proposed role of EPCs and the studied angiogenic factors/chemokines in neo-angiogenesis. After tissue injury or destruction of an inflammatory reaction is induced by the release of cytokines and angiogenic chemokines. These activate circulating EPCs, which upregulate their angiogenic chemokine receptors due to the hypoxic challenge, adhere and transmigrate to the site of injury. Here, together with monocytes they integrate into tube structures, and differentiate into mature endothelial cells (“vessel formation”). Our data suggest that MIF and VEGF are critical players in the earlier processes. Also MIF, but surprisingly not CXCL12, is important in the later stages including fully functional vessel formation