Fig. 6

In vivo host neovascularization. a Representative intravital confocal images of the graft through the AIW. Naive tri-culture and ANGPT1- and VEGF-expressing tri-cultures were grown for 4 days prior to transplantation. Mice were injected with mCD31 to stain the host vessel network, and TRITC–dextran to observe perfusion. Green indicates human endothelial cells-ZsGreen, red indicates TRITC–dextran and blue indicates mouse CD31. The area of the transplanted graft is indicated by a yellow dashed circle. Scale bar = 100 µm. b Representative intravital confocal large-magnification images of grafts populated with naive or with ANGPT1- and VEGF-expressing tri-cultures 7 days post transplantation, viewed through the AIW. Green indicates human endothelial cell-ZGreen, red TRITC–dextran and blue mouse CD31. Scale bar = 100 µm. c Representative image of TRITC–dextran circulating in the transplanted scaffolds, and its respective AngioTool analysis. Vessel skeletons are seen in red, vessel borders in yellow and vessel junctions in blue. d AngioTool-quantitated total vessel length of both functional and nonfunctional mouse blood vessels. Data are expressed as box-and-whisker plots, where the central lines denote medians, edges represent upper and lower quartiles and whiskers show minimum and maximum values, n = 6. At each time point, unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test analysis was performed between the tested groups (*p = 0.0012 and 0.0071 for ANGPT1 VEGF tri versus naive tri at days 4 and 7, respectively). e AngioTool-quantitated total vessel length of functional blood vessels. Data are expressed as box-and-whisker plots, where the central lines denote medians, edges represent upper and lower quartiles and whiskers show minimum and maximum values, n = 6. At each time point, unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test analysis was performed between the tested groups (*p = 0.0089, 0.0426, 0.0088 and 0.00016 for ANGPT1 VEGF tri versus naive tri at days 4, 7, 10 and 14, respectively). f AngioTool-quantitated total vessel length of implanted endothelial cells (naive or ANGPT1-expressing). Data are expressed as box-and-whisker plots, where the central lines denote medians, edges represent upper and lower quartiles and whiskers show minimum and maximum values, n = 6. At each time point, unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test analysis was performed (*p = 0.016, 0.0012, 0.019 and 0.0001 for ANGPT1 VEGF tri versus naive tri at days 4, 7, 10 and 14, respectively)