Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 1 pp 1186—1211

Figure 10. Downregulating miR-139-5p expression promotes ECFC-mediated angiogenesis and blood perfusion in hind limb ischemia (HLI) in diabetic mice. (A) Representative ischemia photographs of 5 groups taken 14 days after injections. Group A: Sham; Group B: PBS; Group C: antagomiR-139; Group D: ECFC; Group E: ECFCs + antagomiR-139. (B) Time-dependent effect of ECFC and/or antagomiR-139 treatment on skin temperature of lower extremity in ischemic mice. (N=3) *P<.05 and ^#P<.01, both versus PBS. (C) Improved limb blood perfusion by transplanting ECFC and antagomir-139-5p in ischemic limb of diabetic mice. The time course of blood perfusion is shown in the images and quantitative analysis after HLI surgery with or without ECFC transplantation and/or antagomir-139-5p. Blood perfusion is the ratio of ischemic to non-ischemic limb perfusion measured by a PeriCam Perfusion Speckle Imager. (N=3) *P<.05 and ^#P<.01, both versus PBS. (D) Effect of ECFC transplantation and/or antagomiR-139 on vascular density of lower extremity in ischemic mice. Vascular density was determined by counting the number of CD31-stained blood vessels (brown, black arrow) under 5 high-power fields (200X) of normal optical microscope. (N=3) *P<.05 and ^#P<.01, both versus PBS. Data shown in the graphs represent mean ± standard deviation.