Fig. 1

Aprotinin inhibits human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC)-induced fibrin degradation. a, b Images of YFP-HUVEC in co-culture with ASCs were taken after 2 weeks of incubation in clots containing 2.5 mg/mL fibrinogen (a) or 20 mg/mL fibrinogen (b) spiked with Alexa Fluor 546-labelled fibrinogen. Locations with high fibrinolytic activity can be seen as dark tube-like structures in fibrin in aprotinin-free conditions. c Supernatants were collected from HUVEC and ASC embedded in fluorescent fibrin clots, measured and the accumulated fluorescence of 7 days of culture was calculated. Supernatant from clots cultured in aprotinin-free medium showed a higher fluorescence signal compared to clots incubated in aprotinin-containing medium. Values represent four individual experiments and fold changes of aprotinin-free samples compared to aprotinin-containing samples. n = 7 (7 days); n = 6 (14 days); *p < 0.05. Scale bar: 200 μm