Fig. 2

Human umbilical vein cord endothelial cell (HUVEC) morphology, attachment, spreading and adhesion kinetics. a Representative crystal violet staining images of HUVECs grown under different culture conditions and time points. b–d Graphs from image analysis of attached HUVECs showing cell number (b), mean cell area (c) and total cell area (d). e Cell adhesion kinetics monitored in real time using xCELLigence system reveal faster increase in mean cell index (CI) in HUVECs exposed to human dental pulp stromal cell conditioned medium (hDPSC-CM). The effect was independent of concentration and happened within minutes after seeding. f, g Representative graphs comparing HUVEC attachment, showing difference in mean CI value (f) and slope of the line (g) between each selected time period (0–1, 1–3 and 3–6 h). Endothelial growth medium (EGM-2) group served as reference for comparison. Data presented as mean ± SEM. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, n = 4. EBM-2 Endothelial Basal Medium-2, CM conditioned medium, EGM-2 Endothelial Growth Medium-2