Figure 1

Cell stemness and kinetic metabolic profiling assessments. (A) Typical BM EPCs under normoxia were characterized by double positive staining (merged in yellow) with both DiI-AcLDL (red) and FITC-UEA-I (green). Scale bar represents 100 μm. (B) Representative images of BM EPCs colonies. Scale bar represents 1 mm. The number of BM EPCs colonies under hypoxia was significantly higher than that under normoxia (n = 6). (C) qRT-PCR results showing higher expression of the stemness markers, Nanog, Oct4, Klf4 and Sox2 under hypoxia than under normoxia (n = 5). (D) Representative tube networks formed by BM EPCs under normoxia and hypoxia, respectively (n = 3). Images analyzed by the ImageJ plugin “Angiogenesis analyze.” There is an indication of master junctions (pink dots), master segments (yellow), meshes (light blue), branches (green), and isolated segments (blue). Longer total segments length, longer total tube length, and more number of branches were found under hypoxia compared with normoxia. Scale bar represents 200 μm. (E) Representative experiment showing extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) of BM EPCs cultured under normoxia or hypoxia. ECAR representing higher glycolytic rate and capacity in BM EPCs under hypoxia than under normoxia (n = 6). (F) Representative experiment showing oxygen consumption rate (OCR) of BM EPCs cultured under normoxia or hypoxia. OCR for basal and maximal respiration in BM EPCs under hypoxia was lower than under normoxia (n = 6). Data are presented as Mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 versus BM EPCs under normoxia.