Fig. 1

Identification of bone marrow-derived EPCs. a Adherent cells formed a cluster on the fifth day of culture. b The cell cluster grew into a colony on the seventh day of culture. c The typical colonies, consisting of a central core of rounded cells surrounded by spindle-shaped cells, appeared at the second day post-passage. Scale bar = 100 μm (a–c). Cells positive for FITC-UEA-1 staining (d, green) and Dil-ac-LDL staining (e, red). f Merged images represented double-positive for the uptake of Dil-ac-LDL and binding with FITC-UEA-1. The double-positive cells accounted for 85% of the total. Confocal microscopic images (g, red), bright-field microscopic images (h), and merged images of PKH26-labelled bone marrow-derived EPCs (i). Scale bar = 50 μm (d–i). j Cells were positive for CD34 in flow cytometry. k Cells were positive for CD34, VEGFR2, and CD133. The triple-positive cells accounted for 75% of the total