Transplanted Endothelial Progenitor Cells Improve Ischemia Muscle Regeneration in Mice by Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging

Figure 6

Histologic specimens obtained from ischemia muscle. (a) At days 3 and 28, almost complete tissue recovery using Masson’s staining was found in the EPCs treated group. However, in the control group, multiple inflammations and collagen were found (bar = 100 μm). (b) A bar graph showed that the survival muscle fibers of mice treated with EPCs were greater than with the control group. Data is expressed as mean ± SD, . (c) A line graph showed the correlations between survival muscle fibers by histological method and fiber count measured by DTI (, ). (d) The microvascular density was measured by staining ischemia tissues with CD31 on day 14 after treatment. The EPC treatment augmented vessel density of the ischemic hindlimb (bar = 30 μm). (e) A bar graph showed that the microvascular density (MVD) in the group treated with EPCs was significantly increased compared with that of the control group. , , and .