Fig. 7

T-DPSCs inhibited HUVEC sprouting through Ang1/Tie2 and VEGF/VEGFR2 signaling. a T-DPSCs and exogenous Ang1 inhibited endothelial sprouting. Representative images of in vitro sprouting assay using HUVECs + DPSCs, HUVECs + T-DPSCs, and HUVECs + DPSCs + Ang1 co-culture spheroids, respectively. b Quantification of cumulative length of sprouting assay using ImageJ software. c, d Sprouting assay of HUVEC and T-DPSC co-culture spheroids stimulated with VEGF (20 ng/mL) and Ang2 (1000 ng/mL). Representative images (c) and quantification of cumulative length of sprouting (d). e, f HUVECs were pretreated with the Tie2 inhibitor (5 μM) or VEGFR2 inhibitor (5μM) for 12 h before co-cultured with T-DPSCs to form spheroids. Sprouting images (e) and quantification of cumulative length (f). Data are mean ± standard error for n = 3 replicates, *p <0.05, ***p <0.001, ****p <0.0001