Fig. 4.

Human kidney proximal tubule epithelial cells (HPTECs) activate other types of endothelial cells (ECs) in coculture. A: immunofluorescence images of human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs) in monoculture and coculture condition with HPTECs. Scale bars = 50 μm. B: selected kidney-specific markers and endothelial activation markers in HUVECs cocultured with HPTECs from three different donors. C: selected kidney-specific markers and endothelial activation markers in human pluripotent stem cell-derived ECs (hPSC-ECs) cocultured with HPTECs from three different donors. Quantitative RT-PCR samples were pooled from five replicate microculture devices per donor, with an average of three quantitative RT-PCR technical replicates. Gene expression in both B and C was normalized to monoculture, which was set to 1. Statistical comparisons (as described in materials and methods) are shown for genes showing significant differences between coculture and monoculture. *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01. PCAM-1, platelet-EC adhesion molecule; vWF, von Willebrand factor; AJAP1, adherens junctions-associated protein 1; KCNJ16, potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily J member 16; CNTN4, contactin 4; MMP7, matrix metalloproteinase-7; MMP10, matrix metalloproteinase-10; VCAM1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1; ANG2, angiopoietin 2.