Figure 6

The vascular mural structure in the engrafted ASCVT at 2 weeks after the transplantation. (a) Immunostaining for human CD34 (hCD34) and human CD90 (hCD90). Almost every engrafted and hCD34-positive vessels surrounded by hCD90-positive mural cells that putatively derived from hASCs. (b) Immunostaining for human CD31 (hCD31) and αSMA in serial section of (a). The endothelial cells are positive for hCD31 in addition to hCD34. The mural cells are positive for αSMA. (c) Immunostaining for hCD34 and NG2. The mural cells are positive for NG2 that is a marker of pericytes and vascular smooth muscle cells. (d–f) Double immunostaining for αSMA and NG2. The merged image indicated coexistence of αSMA and NG2 in the mural cells derived from hASCs. (g) The presence of desmin, another marker of pericytes and smooth muscle cells, is confirmed in the mural cells. (h) Electron micrograph of the vessels in engrafted ASCVT. Er: erythrocytes, Ec: endothelial cells, Mu: mural cells. Stratifying mural cells surrounded the vessels. (i) High magnified image of hatched box in (h). Formation of peg-socket structure between endothelial cell and the mural cell is found (arrow). The nuclei of the cells in the dark field images were visualized by DAPI (blue color). The images are representatives from three independent experiments.