Cellular proliferative state.

<p>HUVEC were cultured in low (sparse) and high (dense) densities. (A) Illustration of the morphology of sparse (left panel) and dense (right panel) HUVEC. (B) Gene expression of quiescence marker IL33 and proliferation marker MKI67 in sparse relative to dense cell cultures determined by qRT-PCR in material from six donors. (C) Staining for IL-33 in dense culture (right panel) and sparse culture (left panel) visible as magenta, costained with DAPI nuclear staining visible as blue. The pictures were acquired using a confocal microscope at 60X magnification. (D) The proliferation rate was assessed by applying the MTS-assay on cell cultures of increasing densities from four donors. (E) Cell mortality rate was determined with the LDH-assay for 5 donors in both sparse (upper panel) and dense (lower panel) cell cultures. All data are presented as means with SEM, and statistical significant differences (<i>p</i> < 0.05) was tested with Students paired <i>t</i>-test and denoted by *. The scale bars indicates 100 and 50 μm respectively.