Figure 4.

Kaempferol potentiates angiogenesis ex vivo microvascular sprouting. Thoracic aortas were removed from 6-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats, and aortic ring fragments (cut into 1-mm thick) were cultured in matrigel and incubated with 5 ng/ml VEGF with or without kaempferol or 200 μg/ml Avastin. After drug treatment for 8 days, micovessels in each piece of fragment were captured for microvascular outgrowth. Images represented the microvascular outgrowth, and the area of microvascular sprouting in the control group and drug-treated group were quantified with application of Image J software. Results are shown as the percentage of change as compared to control (no drug) in mean ± SEM, where n = 3; p < 0.05 *p < 0.01 **p < 0.001 (***) vs VEGF-treated group. Bar = 40 μm.