Fig. 1
Traits spatio-temporal expression of Meox1 and Sca-1+ stem cells during balloon injury-induced neointimal formation. The experiment preliminarily demonstrated the traits of distribution of both Sca-1+ progenitor cells and Meox1 expression in the vessel wall during the process of neointimal formation after vascular injury and identified the correlation between them. A Rats underwent carotid artery balloon injury. Representative sections of sham operation and injured arteries at the indicated time points were stained with Meox1. Open arrow indicates the neointima area, forked tail arrow indicates the media, and round arrow indicates the adventitia. B Immunofluorescence staining of Sca-1+ and Meox1+ cells on the first and fourteenth day after injury. Red fluorescence indicates Sca-1; green indicates Meox1; blue fluorescence indicates DAPI-labeled nucleus; I, neointima; M, media; A, adventitia