Figure 5.

Culturing endothelial cells (ECs) in the presence of supernatant from telocytes (TCs) induces positive effects that are mediated by exosomes. ECs were cultured in the presence of supernatant from ECs (control), supernatant from TCs, or isolated exosomes (20 μg/mL) from TCs. In addition, some ECs were cultured with supernatant from TCs that had been depleted of exosomes by either ultracentrifugation or treatment with GW4869. A. Proliferation of ECs under each condition were measured using an MTS assay. ***, P < 0.001 versus supernatant from ECs. n = 5. B. ECs under each condition were also assessed for capillary-like structure formation (top row: “6 h”) and migration (bottom two rows: “0 h” and “24 h”) and representative images are shown. For the capillary-like formation assay, ECs were seeded, allowed to incubate for 6 h, and then visualized under an Olympus microscope. Black arrows indicate capillary-like structure. To assess migration distance, ECs were visualized by microscope “0 h”, then treated for another 24 h, and visualized again (“24 h”). Migration distance was compared before and after treatment. C, D. Show the quantification of these results. ****, P < 0.0001. n = 5.