Fig. 2
Angiogenesis in hindlimb ischemia after ADSCs delivery. A Representative images of mature blood vessels—double immunostaining of endothelial cells (IB4, green) and pericytes (CD146, red) in: healthy, ischemic, intramuscular, intravenous and contralateral groups on the 7th and the 14th days post-injury (dpi). Nuclei stained with DAPI (blue), scale bars = 50 μm. B Number of capillaries (IB4+) counted in collected muscles on the 7th and the 14th dpi. The number of capillaries (IB4+) in each group was determined in 10 fields of view per animal (n = 3–5) at a magnification of 40× and calculated per 1mm2 of tissue. C Percentage of the area occupied by pericytes (CD146+ cells) was counted in collected muscles on the 7th and the 14th dpi. The total area occupied by CD146+ cells was calculated using ImageJ software in 5 fields of view per animal (n = 3–5) at a magnification of 20× Results are presented as mean ± standard error (SE) or in box plot as median, quartiles and min/max values as whiskers. #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.005 ###p < 0.0001 by the ANOVA followed by the Tukey’s post hoc test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.02, ***p < 0.001 evaluated with Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance and multiple comparison of mean ranks for all groups