Shear Stress Induces Differentiation of Endothelial Lineage Cells to Protect Neonatal Brain from Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury through NRP1 and VEGFR2 Signaling

Figure 1

The upregulation of endothelial gene expressions and functional characteristics in different endothelial induction phases. After treating adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) with endothelial growth medium, the early endothelial progenitor cells (early EPCs) remain spindle-shape morphology, while the subsequential application of laminar shear stress (LSS) induced the endothelial lineage cells (ELCs) to align parallel to the flow direction (a). The early EPCs showed increase of VEGFR2 expression and slight vWF induction (b). Application of LSS further induced the vWF expression in ELCs. The ELCs but not early EPCs were capable of producing NO (c). The ELCs showed better ability to form tube-like structure than undifferentiated ASCs and early EPCs (d). , Scale bar: 200 μm.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)