Figure 3.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) serum significantly impairs the wound healing capacity of dermal lymphatic microvascular endothelial cells (LMVECs). The wound healing capacity of LMVECs was determined in the presence of sera from healthy controls (n = 8) or patients with early diffuse cutaneous SSc (n = 8). To verify the efficiency of the assay, pro-lymphangiogenic recombinant human (rh) vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C was administered to LMVECs as a positive control. Representative images of the wounded area at 0 h and 48 h after scratching are shown (original magnification: ×10). The histograms show results of quantitative analysis of the percentage of wound repair. Data are mean ± SEM of three independent experiments performed in triplicate with each one of the three LMVEC lines. * p < 0.001 vs. healthy serum (Tukey’s test).