Characterization of Epicardial-Derived Cardiac Interstitial Cells: Differentiation and Mobilization of Heart Fibroblast Progenitors
Figure 6
Evaluation of EPIC clones (cEP) proteolytic activity and sprouting.
A. Representative images are shown for the culture of EPIC clones (cEP1–8) in 3D fibrin gels. B. The phenotype of the clones is illustrated in the left table. Note that some cell spheroids (asterisks) preferentially degrade the fibrin (‘proteolytic’ clones), generating characteristic halo around the cells (arrowheads). Others (‘sprouting’ clones) attach to the fibrin and spread over it forming multicellular sprouts (arrowheads). The fibrin gel digested area was graphically represented for each clone (middle) and plotted against the respective sprouting area of each clone (µm2, right). C. qPCR analyses of MMP, ADAM and TIMP expression in three significant cEP (cEP4 for maximal proteolysis and cEP6,7 for maximal sprouting). (p<0.05). Scale bars: 100 µm.