Fig. 7

Oct4 improved the expression levels of pro-angiogenic factors in adFoxC1-mediated vascular microenvironments. A In growth kinetic analyses, a significantly increasing pattern was seen in MSCs cocultured with adFoxC1-treated ECs after adOct4 transfection, which also extended the peak cell growth in adOct4 transfected MSCs cocultured with ECs alone. B, C Comparison of angiogenic factor concentration changes under hypoxic conditions, as detected using an antibody array in MSCs before and after Oct4 overexpression. D, E, F Quantitative analysis of Ang1 (D), VEGF (E), and bFGF and HGF (F) protein level changes in the conditioned culture supernatants of the MSCs treated with control vector, adOct4, or siOct4 in the presence or absence of adFoxC1 in ECs. All data are the means ± SEM. p < 0.05: in ECs without adFoxC1, *versus MSCs treated with no intervention, ^†versus MSCs with adOct4, ^‡versus MSCs with siOct4; in ECs with adFoxC1, ^§versus MSCs treated with no intervention, ^‖versus MSCs with adOct4 (n = 10 per group). Welch ANOVA analyses were performed in B and C–F. G Ang1 and VEGF immunocytofluorescence in MSCs 144 h after the imposition of hypoxic conditions. (The first and third rows) High magnification of MSCs under a light microscope. (The second and fourth rows) Immunofluorescence staining for Ang1 (red) and VEGF (red) on MSCs harvested 144 h following hypoxic culture to detect Ang1 and VEGF levels in the cytoplasm of MSCs. Scale bar: 50 μm