Fig. 4
From: TGF-β1-triggered maladaptive bone marrow endothelium impedes hematopoietic recovery

Either TGF-β1 pathway inhibition or HSC-active angiocrine factor pleiotrophin (PTN) treatment repairs maladaptive BM ECs in vitro. a Heatmap of the top 30 significantly downregulated genes encoding secretory proteins in BM ECs from the TGF-β1 group. b The mRNA level of PTN in BM ECs treated with TGF-β1 alone or in combination with LY2157299 (LY) was assessed via qPCR (N = 3 per group, n = 1 per sample). Representative images (scale bars, 50 μm) (c) and quantification (d) of double-positive BM ECs (yellow) co-stained with DiI-AcLDL (red) and FITC-UEA I (green) following the indicated treatments (N = 6 per group, n = 3 per sample). Quantification (e) and representative images (scale bars, 50 μm) (f) of migrated BM ECs following the indicated treatment (original magnification, ×10) (N = 6 per group, n = 3 per sample). Quantification (g) and representative images (scale bars, 200 μm) (h) of tube formation (pixels of tubes) of BM ECs after the indicated treatment (original magnification, 4 ×) (N = 6 per group, n = 3 per sample). i BM ECs cultured from HDs in the indicated groups were cocultured with CD34+ cells for a duration of 5 days to evaluate the colony-forming efficiency of CD34⁺ cells (CFU-E, BFU-E, CFU-GM, and CFU-GEMM; N = 6 per group, n = 3 per sample). N represents biological replicates; n represents technical replicates. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs. Statistical analyses were performed using paired t test. BFU-E burst-forming unit-erythroid, BM bone marrow, CFU colony-forming unit, CFU-E colony-forming unit-erythroid, CFU-GEMM colony-forming unit-granulocyte, erythroid, macrophage and megakaryocyte, CFU-GM colony-forming unit-granulocyte/macrophage, EC endothelial cell, SEM standard error of the mean