Passage 1 EC and SMC were grown to confluence on plastic dishes or on chitosan/PCL membranes. After that, they were fixed with 4% PFA (paraformaldehyde) for 10 min, permeabilized with 0.05% Triton X-100 for 10 min, and blocked with 1% BSA (bovine serum albumin). The cells were stained with primary antibodies overnight at 4 °C, washed with PBS and incubated with secondary antibodies for 1 h at room temperature. The stained cells were analysed with an inverted fluorescence microscope (Nikon Ti-E) using Nikon AR software.
The following primary antibodies were used: anti-human CD31 (
M0823, DAKO, 1:50), anti-α-SMA (DAKO,
M0851, 1:50), anti-smooth muscle myosin heavy chain 11 (Abcam, ab82541, 1:500), anti-human CD90 (eBioscience, 14090982, 1:100), anti-Von Willebrand factor (Abcam,
ab6994, 1:200), anti-fibronectin (Abcam,
ab6328, 1:200), anti-elastin (Abcam, ab21610, 1:200), and anti-collagen IV (Life Span, 1:200).
The following secondary antibodies were used:
Alexa Fluor 568 goat anti-mouse IgG1 (Life Technologies, A21124, 1:400),
Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-mouse IgG1 (Life Technologies, A21121, 1:400), Alexa Fluor 568 goat anti-mouse IgG2a (Life Technologies, A21134, 1:400),
Alexa Fluor 568 goat anti-mouse IgG (H + L) (Life Technologies, A11031, 1:400), and
Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-mouse IgG (H + L) (Life Technologies, A11029, 1:400).
Zakharova I.S., Zhiven’ M.K., Saaya S.B., Shevchenko A.I., Smirnova A.M., Strunov A., Karpenko A.A., Pokushalov E.A., Ivanova L.N., Makarevich P.I., Parfyonova Y.V., Aboian E, & Zakian S.M. (2017). Endothelial and smooth muscle cells derived from human cardiac explants demonstrate angiogenic potential and suitable for design of cell-containing vascular grafts. Journal of Translational Medicine, 15, 54.