Figure 3

Microvessel lumen formed by HUVECs in contact with collagen I gel. (a) Example images of a well-formed 3D microvessel. (i) bright field image; (ii) immunofluorescence image of the nuclei by Hoechst staining; (iii) image of the cytoskeleton by Phalloidin staining; (iv) image of the junctions formed between the cells by VE-cadherin staining; (v) image of three stainings merged; (vi) 3D reconstruction of the microvessel cross-section (using a merged image of Phalloidin and VE-cadherin staining) at a location along the vessel lumen (y-axis); (vii) merged image of the nuclei and cytoskeleton stainings; (viii) 3D reconstruction of the microvessel at a location along the vessel lumen facing the collagen matrix (x-axis). (b) Example images of a vessel characterized by weak F-actin expression, presenting the same data sequence (i–viii) as (a). All scale bars: 50 µm.