Figure 3.

Effects of transplantation of BK-PC hEPCs on capillary and arteriole densities. Representative photographs of immunostaining by using CD31 (A) to identify capillaries and α-SMA (B) to identify arterioles are shown. (A: CD31, original magnification is 400 ×, bar for graph = 20 μm; (B) α-SMA, original magnification is 200 ×, bar for graph = 50 μm.) Quantitative analysis of capillary density (C) and arteriole density (D) in the peri-infarct myocardium is also shown. All values are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 5 for each group, *P < 0.01 versus other myocardial infarction groups). High-power field 2D (E) and 3D images (F) of DiD-labeled implanted hEPCs (red) and immunofluorescence staining of CD31 or α-SMA (green) at the border zone of the ischemic myocardium nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). (Original magnification is 1000 ×; bar for graph = 20 μm).