Fig. 5: VEGFA expression in adipose tissue and effect of systemic VEGFA blockage on fenestrated endothelium.

a Representative confocal images of VEGFA (cyan) and Isolectin B4 (magenta) staining in subcutaneous white adipose tissue (sWAT) sections around large vessels (arrowheads) or b capillary beds in lean (control diet, CD) and obese (high fat diet, HFD) mice. c Quantification of VEGFA+ area around large vessels (CD n = 5, HFD = 6 mice) or d capillary beds (CD n = 6, HFD = 6 mice). e Representative orthogonal projections from whole mount staining for VEGFA (cyan), PLVAP (magenta), and isolectin B4 (yellow) in sWAT in lean and f obese mice. g Volumetric reconstruction of PLVAP+ blood vessels showing relative distance of VEGFA+ cells to rendered blood vessel in lean and h obese mice. VEGFA+ cells close to (<10 µm, magenta spheres, blue arrowhead) or away from (>10 µm, green spheres, white arrowhead) traced blood vessel are depicted. i Quantification of VEGFA+ cells close to PLVAP+ blood vessels in lean (n = 5 mice) and obese (n = 6 mice) animals. j Quantification of PLVAP+ blood vessel in lean (n = 5 mice) and obese (n = 5 mice) animals. k Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) of clusters formed by 91,097 cells of murine sWAT generated by Emont M. et al., (single nucleus RNA sequencing) depicting cell proportion and annotation. l Feature plot and dot plot showing expression of Vegfa in murine dataset. m Schematic representation of control or anti-VEGFA antibody (Ab) treatment regimen. n Representative confocal images showing CD31+ (red) blood vessels, Perilipin+ (white) adipocyte and DAPI+ (cyan) nuclei in sWAT sections from mice injected with control or anti-VEGFA Ab. o Representative orthogonal projections from whole mount staining for PLVAP (cyan) and isolectin B4 (magenta) in sWAT from mice injected with control or anti-VEGFA Ab. p Quantification of blood vessel (CD31 + ) area in (n) (n = 4 mice each). q Quantification of PLVAP+ blood vessel volume in (o) (n = 5 mice each). Scale bars 100 µm. Data represents ± SEM, two-sided Mann-Whitney test (d) and two-sided Welch’s t-test (c, i, j, p, q). Schematics created in BioRender. Hasan, S. (2025) https://BioRender.com/k8kxui3. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.