Figure 1.

Cultivation and characterization of early and late EPCs. (A) Cord blood MNCs were isolated and plated on fibronectin-coated culture dishes for 4 days. Adherent eEPCs are shown in the left panel. Twenty-one days after plating, late EPCs with a cobblestone-like morphology were selected, reseeded, and grown to confluence (right). (B) Both early and late EPCs endocytose DiI-acLDL (acetylated low density lipoprotein; red) and bind fluorescein isothiocyanate UEA-1 (lectin) (green). Cells were counterstained with Hoechst 33258 to show the nucleus (blue). (C, D) Expression of indicated progenitor, endothelial, and hematopoietic markers in early (C) and late (D) EPCs by flow cytometric analysis.