Figure 5

VEGF-A drives differentiation of the human Isl1⁺ progenitors toward an EC lineage, but away from the SMC lineage in vivo. (A) Schematic diagram of the experimental design. (B-U) Frozen sections from matrigel plugs incubated with the day-7 purified human Isl1-cre eGFP⁺ cells in the presence of (B-K) vehicle or (L-U) VEGF-A modRNA were stained for eGFP with smooth muscle- or endothelial cell-specific markers (scale bar in C = 100 μm, scale bar in M = 50 μm, scale bars in all the remaining panels = 25 μm). (V) Quantification analyzed by ImageJ showing number of double positive cells (eGFP⁺SMMHC⁺, eGFP⁺Vimentin⁺ or eGFP⁺CD31⁺) per unit area of the matrigel plug following treatment with vehicle or VEGF-A modRNA.