Fig. 2

Vascularisation of human bone xenografts following implantation into NOD/SCID mice. Representative 3D reconstructions of bone architecture (a), tomato-conjugated lectin bound to carbohydrates on the luminal surfaces of blood vessels (b) and their merged location within the bone (c). Determination of species origin of endothelial cells is shown in panels d–k, representative immunofluorescent images of bone sections on day 0 (d–g) and day 28 (h–k). Single-channel DAPI (d and h), FITC-conjugated mouse CD31 (e and i), TRITC-conjugated human CD31 (f and j) and merged dual stained images (g and k). Total number of blood vessels present in 10 fields per bone was unchanged over the time course. Presence of single stained human blood vessels decreased significantly from day 14 (l (i)), but a concomitant increase in dual stained vessels was detected (l (ii)). Gene expression of human and mouse VEGF confirmed the immunofluorescent time curve (l (iii)). Data represents mean ± SEM with statistical significance determined by one-way ANOVA. ***p < 0.0001