Fig. 6

Expression of angiogenesis-related proteins of cultivated oral mucosal epithelial cells (COMECs) co-cultured with LNCs and 3 T3 cells. a Relative protein expression levels of bFGF, PEDF, VEGF, TSP-1, TIMP-3, and endostatin were detected by western blotting normalized with GAPDH. b Densitometric analysis of specific immunoreactive bands was performed. c The sFlt-1 concentrations in the conditioned medium were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. LNCs: limbal niche cells, bFGF: basic fibroblast growth factor, PEDF: pigment epithelium-derived factor, VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor, TSP-1: thrombospondin-1, TIMP-3: tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-3, GAPDH: glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, sFlt-1: soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, *: p < 0.05