Fig. 6: IGF-1-deficient macrophages have decreased proangiogenic properties and Igf-1^ΔMϕ mice are more susceptible to experimental NEC.

a, b 4 × 10⁴ intestinal endothelial cells from mT/mG neonatal pups were co-cultured for 4 days on Matrigel with 2 × 10⁴ CX3CR1⁺ neonatal intestinal macrophages obtained from IGF-1-sufficient (n = 6) or Igf-1^ΔMϕ (n = 6) pups. a Typical sprouting images are shown. b Sprout length was measured, each data point indicates the length of a single sprout (mean ± SEM). c, d Intestinal tissue VEGF expression was assessed at D1 (24 h of life) by western blot analysis and relative band density to actin was quantified (mean ± SEM), n = 10 and 12 IGF-1-sufficient or Igf-1^ΔMϕ groups, respectively. P values were calculated using two-sided Student’s t tests (b, d). e, f IGF-1-sufficient or Igf-1^ΔMϕ pups were submitted to the neonatal NEC model. e Survival curves are shown, n = 48 and 37 in IGF-1-sufficient or Igf-1^ΔMϕ groups, respectively, P values were calculated using Gehan–Breslow–Wilcoxon test. f Intestinal histological injury scores are shown, n = 46 and 35 in IGF-1-sufficient or Igf-1^ΔMϕ groups, respectively, P values were calculated using Chi-square analysis. All plots are the results of three separated experiments combined. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ****p < 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.