Figure 6
Biological consequences of VEGF165/GAG interaction on VEGF165-mediated sprouting of HUVEC spheroids. 1 × 103 cells were seeded in medium containing 10% methyl cellulose to form spheroids, which were embedded in methyl cellulose/collagen-I gels and treated with VEGF165 alone or pre-formed VEGF165/GAG complexes. (a) Sprouting of HUVEC spheroids determined by light microscopy. (b) Cumulative sprouting length calculated using ImageJ and (c) number of sprouts. For (a) one representative microscope picture is shown and for (b) and (c) values represent the mean ± SD of n = 3 with 10 spheroids evaluated for each independent experiment. One-way ANOVA***p < 0.001 vs. VEGF165 alone; ###p < 0.001 vs. Ctrl. [adapted and modified from33].
