Fig. 2.

Soluble α-Klotho (sKl) improves the wound healing capacity of healthy dermal microvascular endothelial cells (H-MVECs) and counteracts the inhibitory effects of serum from patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Wound healing capacity of H-MVECs was assayed at basal conditions and in the presence of serum from healthy controls (n = 5) and patients with SSc (n = 5), with or without the addition of sKl. a–l Representative images of the wounded area at 0 hours and 24 hours after scratching. m Quantitative analysis of the percentage of wound repair. Data are means ± SD of three independent experiments performed in triplicate with each one of the five H-MVEC lines. Tukey’s multiple comparisons test was used for statistical analysis; p values are indicated