<p>Total RNA was extracted from the cultured and freshly isolated central marrow EC, endosteal marrow EC, spleen EC, central marrow SC and endosteal marrow SC. (A) Flow cytometric plots for the purification of ECs and SCs derived from central marrow, endosteal marrow and spleen. SCs and ECs were identified as CD45<sup>−</sup>TER119<sup>−</sup>CD31<sup>−</sup> and CD45<sup>−</sup>TER119<sup>−</sup>CD31<sup>+</sup> respectively. The mRNA expression level of VEGFa (B), VEGFb (C) and PlGF (D) was measured using quantitative RT-PCR. The relative expression was normalized to <i>hprt</i> levels and calculated from standard curves (For the cultured cells, *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001; n = 6 from 3 independent experiments; error bars represent standard deviation. For the freshly sorted cells, n = 2).</p
