Fig. 1

Endothelial differentiation potential of different MSC populations is heterogeneous and limited. a Relative expression levels of CD31, CD34, Flt1, vWF, VE-cadherin, and Tie-2 were investigated in undifferentiated and EC-differentiated BMSCs, AMSCs, UMSCs, and PMSCs. The candidate gene expression in undifferentiated MSCs was normalized to 1, and the relative fold-change in the corresponding EC-differentiated cells was shown as 2^–ΔΔCT. BMSCs derived from two donors, and AMSCs, UMSCs, and PMSCs derived from three individuals were used. b Confocal microscope was used to investigate the expression of vWF and CD31 in EC-differentiated MSCs and HUVECs. To identify whether the EC-differentiated cells displayed similar functions to endothelial cells, immunostaining of eNOS and acLDL-uptaking assay were respectively performed. All photographs were captured at × 200 magnification. HUVECs served as positive control. MSC mesenchymal stem cells, HUVEC human umbilical vein endothelial cells, BMSC bone marrow-derived MSCs, AMSC adipose tissue-derived MSCs, UMSC umbilical cord-derived MSCs, PMSC placental chorionic villi-derived MSCs, vWF von Willebrand Factor, eNOS endothelial nitric oxide synthase, acLDL acetylated-low density lipoprotein