Fig. 2: Human adipose tissue-derived microvascular endothelial cells (HAMVECs) exhibit morphological, molecular, and functional hallmarks of endothelium.

HAMVECs were compared with endothelial cell (EC) controls representative of the predominant endothelial specializations, namely human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs; macrovascular, venous endothelium), human coronary artery ECs (HCAECs; macrovascular, arterial endothelium), and human dermal microvascular ECs (HDMVECs; microvascular endothelium). a Cobblestone-like morphology of endothelium. Scale bars represent 200 µm. b Abundance of transcripts encoding CD31 (gene: PECAM1), vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin (gene: CDH5), and von Willebrand Factor (vWF; gene: VWF). Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gene: GAPDH) was used as a loading control. Dashed line depicts a mean difference of zero; and dotted lines is the equivalence margin (∂) used for the two one-sided test for equivalence. Values represent the mean ± 90% confidence interval; mRNA, messenger ribonucleic acid; and C_q, the quantification cycle. c Expression and localization of the corresponding endothelial proteins. Scale bars represent 25 µm. d Internalization of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (AcLDL). Solid and dashed lines represent ECs cultured in the presence and absence of Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated AcLDL, respectively. Values represent mean ± standard deviation. e Capillary-like tubulogenesis by ECs. Scale bars represent 200 µm. All experiments were performed in biological triplicate, using cells derived from three different donors (n = 3 biologically independent samples).