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Fig. 6 | Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters

Fig. 6

From: Deficiency of αII-spectrin affects endothelial cell–matrix contact and migration leading to impairment of angiogenesis in vitro

Fig. 6

Knockdown of αII-spectrin disturbs capillary tube formation in vitro. a Observation of capillary tube formation on Matrigel. HMEC-1 cells transfected with plasmids coding for GFP and either Nr shRNA or Sp shRNA were seeded 72 h after transfection at a density of 100,000 cells/ml on Matrigel (9.3 mg/ml) and observed 10 h after plating. Capillary tube formation is not disturbed in cells treated with Nr shRNA (middle panel) compared to the formation by non-transfected cells (left panel). The presence of spectrin-depleted cells (right panel) alters the formation of these structures in vitro: capillary tubes are less dense and remain incomplete. Camera, 10x magnification. Lower panel – fluorescent images of HMEC-1 cells transfected with plasmid coding GFP. b Kinetics of capillary tube formation. HMEC-1 cells transfected for 72 h with plasmids coding for GFP and either Nr shRNA or Sp shRNA were seeded on Matrigel and observed using video microscopy for 12 h. Spectrin-depleted cells form extensions but these extensions appear labile and disappear very quickly (arrow) as compared to cells transfected with control shRNA. Scale bar = 20 μm

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