Figure 9.

EXO_KV11 suppresses VEGF-induced angiogenic effects. (A) Starved HUVECs were pretreated with EXO, KV11, or EXO_KV11 and stimulated with VEGF for 24 h. Staining for BrdU incorporation shows proliferating HUVECs. (B) Quantification of BrdU⁺ cells in (A). The proportion of BrdU⁺ nuclei among total DAPI⁺ nuclei was determined and then normalized to the control condition. n > 8 biological repeats were analyzed. (C) Representative bright field images of the scratch migration assay of HUVECs treated as in (A) after 12 h of VEGF stimulation.(D) Quantification of the gap closure from (C). n = 8 biological repeats were quantified, and the results were normalized to the control condition. (E) Representative images of the bead-sprouting assay using HUVECs pretreated with EXO, KV11, or EXO_KV11 and treated with 50 ng/mL VEGF for 24 h. (F) Quantitative analysis the number of sprouts and total sprouting length in (E). Approximately 20 beads per condition were quantified. The data represent as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple comparisons test in (B), (D), (F). Scale bars, 50 µm in (A and C), 200 µm in (E).