Fig. 1

UCX® promote tubulogenesis. Matrigel assay was performed by seeding human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in endothelial basal medium (EBM), endothelial growth medium (EGM), EBM supplemented with fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) (EBM + FGF-2) or EBM co-cultured with UCX®. (a) Representative images from the different experimental conditions are shown. (b) Quantitative evaluation demonstrated significantly enhanced master junctions, total mesh area and total segment length in capillary-like structures formed in HUVECs co-cultured with UCX® when compared to the other experimental conditions. For master junctions, following Games-Howell post hoc test the mean differences between UCX® and the other experimental conditions were: EBM (mean dif. =24.27; p = 0.01); EGM (mean dif. = 19.67; p = 0.03) and EBM + FGF-2 (mean dif. = 13.8; p = 0.034). The effect size to basal was 2.08 and power 0.98. For the meshes area, following pairwise comparisons, the equivalent to a post hoc Kruskal-Wallis test, significant differences between UCX® and EBM or UCX® and EGM were observed with KW = 22.66, p < 0.01 or KW = 18.77, p = 0.01, respectively. For segment length, following Games-Howell post hoc test, UCX® show significant difference when compared to the other groups: EBM (mean dif. = 4920; p < 0.001); EGM (mean dif. = 3346; p = 0.01) and EBM + FGF-2 (mean dif. = 2223; p = 0.016). Effect size to basal was 3.85 and power 1. Scale bar, 500 μm