of capillary-like structures in the co-culture system.

<p>(A) Pre-processing of the obtained mosaix images for analysis in Angioquant, (B) explanation of length, junctions, area and complex as defined in Angioquant, CD31 staining (endothelial cells, red)</p

Correlation of VEGFR-2 with VE-Cadherin and capillary-like structures.

<p>(A) Confluent and sparse endothelial seeding in HUVEC/cartid artery-derived cell co-culture systems; CD31 endothelial cell staining; (B) Immunoprecipitated VEGFR2 blotted with anti-phosphotyrosine (PY 20) for detection of phosphorylated levels of VEGFR2; whole cell lysates were blotted with α-Tubulin to show equal loading.</p

The effect of Bevacizumab on the formation of capillary-like structures.

<p>The effect of Bevacizumab on 17.500 cells/ well (each cell type) and 40+10 ng/ml VEGF+PDGF-BB; (A) without Bevacizumab and (B) with Bevacizumab; CD31 staining (endothelial cells, red)</p

Effect of PDGF-BB and VEGF on HUVEC donor 1.

<p>Addition of PDGF-BB and/or VEGF to (A+B) 10.000 and (C+D) 17.500 cells/well of each cell type in the co-culture assay (HUVEC donor 1); amount of added growth factors: (A+C) 10 ng/ml PDGF-BB and (B+D) 40 ng/ml VEGF +10 ng/ml PDGF-BB; CD31 staining (endothelial cells, red)</p

Correlation between FACS analysis of VEGFR-2 and formation of capillary-like structures.

<p>The correlation between (A+B) FACS analysis of VEGFR-2 and the (C+D) formation of capillary-like structures for two different donors in the co-culture assay; (A+C) Donor 1 (9.3% VEGFR-2) and (B+D) donor 3 (0.6% VEGFR-2); CD31 staining (endothelial cells, red)</p

Co-culture assay with supportive ovine carotid-artery derived cells and HUVECs.

<p>DAPI (all cell nuclei, blue) and CD31 staining (endothelial cells, red)</p

Morphology of supportive cells.

<p>(A) carotid artery-derived mixed population of cells (P4); (B) subconfluent HUASMCs and (C) confluent HUASMCs with their typical hill and valley morphology</p

Quantification of capillary-like structures.

<p>(A) Junctions per complex, (B) length, (C) covered area and (D) number of complexes in the co-culture assay in dependence of cell seeding (10.000 or 17.500 cells/well for each cell type) and growth factor concentrations (5–15 ng/ml PDGF-BB and 30–40 ng/ml VEGF) for three different donors</p

Evaluation of cell number of both supportive and vessel-forming cells in the co-culture assay.

<p>(A) 10,000 cells/well, (B) 17,500 cells/well and (C) 20,000 cells/well for each cell type; CD31 staining (endothelial cells, red)</p

Characterization of supportive cells.

<p>Immunhistological staining of (A–C) human umbilical artery smooth muscle cells and (D–F) ovine carotid artery smooth muscle cells for (A, B) α-SMA (red), (C, D) smoothelin (red) and (E, F) CD31, (DAPI staining in blue)</p