Fig. 8.

Simple Western assay demonstrates increased levels of pro-angiogenic cytokines and decreased markers of fibrosis and apoptosis 4 weeks following EPC-SMC bi-level cell sheet implantation. a VEGF protein expression was decreased in the untreated diabetic group with significantly higher relative VEGF expression in the cell sheet treatment group as compared to untreated animals. b–d TGF-β1, TGF-β receptor 1, and TGF-β receptor 2 protein expression was increased in the untreated diabetic group with significantly higher relative expression of TGF-β1, TGF-β receptor 1, and TGF-β receptor 2 in the untreated animals than in the cell sheet treatment group. e–f Caspase-3 and caspase-9 protein expression were increased in the untreated animals with significantly lower relative expression in the cell sheet treated group as compared to the untreated group. *P < 0.001, **P < 0.05, ***P < 0.01