Figure 5.

Concomitant overexpression of triple antioxidant enzymes helped maintain circulating EPCs at elevated levels after limb ischaemia. Flow cytometry analysis showed that the CD34⁺/Flk‐1⁺ cell population stayed at an extremely low level shortly after limb ischaemia and only slightly increased at day 21 (A). On the other hand, circulating Sca‐1⁺/Flk‐1⁺ cells and CD34⁺/CD133⁺ cells were initially increased at day 3, but significantly decreased at day 21 (B and D). When ischaemia‐induced ROS production was inhibited in TG mice, all the circulating EPCs populations in TG mice were significantly increased up to 3‐fold at day 21 after ischaemia over the WT mice. The blood c‐Kit⁺/CD31⁺ cell population was elevated to 6.5 ± 1.13% in the TG mice (4.3 ± 1.1% in WT mice) at day 3 after ischaemia (C). TG mice maintained circulating EPCs at elevated level compared to the WT mice. BL: blood. BM: bone marrow. *Day 3 or 21 vs Ctrl, P < 0.05, n = 8; $ Day 21 vs 3, P < 0.05, n = 8; #WT vs TG, P < 0.05, n = 8