Fig. 2

Characterization of EPCs of mice isolated from the control group growing in vitro (magnification × 100). a Round or oval EPCs on the 4th day. b Spindle-shaped or round EPCs on the 8th day. c EPCs covering the bottom, similar to “stone pavement”, on the 14th day. After 7 days of growth, the bone marrow-derived EPCs from mice were characterized as adherent cells that showed DiI-ac-LDL uptake and lectin binding via laser scanning confocal microscopy (Fig. 3). A total of 73.50 ± 7.47% of the adherent cells showed DiI-ac-LDL uptake and lectin binding after growing for 7 days. In addition, these findings were confirmed by the expression of the well-established cell surface markers CD31, CD34, CD133, CD144 and VEGFR2, which were detected in 91.2 ± 3.6%, 95.3 ± 2.6%, 94.8 ± 3.2%, 93.1 ± 4.2% and 95.8 ± 2.5% of all cells by immunofluorescence staining (see details in Fig. 4)