PAI-1 inhibition leads to disruption of VE-cadherin-mediated cell-cell junctions.

<p>(A) HUVEC were treated with PAI-039 (25 μM) or solvent (DMSO 0.1%) for four hours and stained for VE-cadherin (green), β-catenin (red) and actin (scale bar 50 μm). PAI-039 treatment causes disruption of junctions, gap formation (asterix) and stress fiber formation. (B) Zooms of images in (A). Arrowhead indicates accumulation of VE-cadherin in endothelial cells, arrowhead plus asterix indicates stress fibres. (C) Average junction width of cells treated with PAI-039 (25 μM) or solvent (DMSO 0.1%) for four hours (n = 4) and after junction recovery in response to washout of inhibitor (n = 2) (mean + SEM, *** p < 0.001, n.s. = non-significant).