Angiogenic potential of EPC-CM on <i>ex vivo</i> aortic ring assays.

<p>Incubation with EPC-CM (<b>B</b>) enhanced the formation of vascular outgrowth from 1 mm rat aortic ring embedded in growth factor reduced-Matrigel™ compared to control medium incubation (<b>A</b>). This enhanced EC cord structure outgrowth could be blocked by the addition of 1 µg/ml PDGFRβ antibody into EPC-CM (<b>C</b>). A similar vascular sprouting extent could only be observed by stimulation aortic ring with 100 ng/ml rhPDGF-BB (1000-times concentrated than the content in EPC-CM) (<b>D</b>), but not with the concentration at 100 pg/ml (<b>E</b>). The extents of vascular outgrowth were quantitatively analyzed and presented by the length of the sprouts (<b>D</b>). *, #, P<0.001.