Fig. 6
Equipotent inhibition of FGF-2-induced pERK1/2 signaling and spheroid sprouting by intact CXCL10(1–77) or C-terminally truncated CXCL10(1–73). A Phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was evaluated after 5 min stimulation of HMVEC with FGF-2 (10 ng/ml) in the absence or presence of CXCL10(1–77) or CXCL10(1–73). The data are displayed as mean (± SEM) of 4 independent experiments. Unpaired t-test was performed ($ p ≤ 0.05, $$ p ≤ 0.01 for comparison to FGF-2). Sprouting of collagen-embedded HMVEC spheroids was assessed upon stimulation with control medium EBM-2 + 3% FCS (CO), 10 ng/ml FGF-2 alone or with CXCL10(1–77) or CXCL10(1–73) at the indicated doses after 16 h incubation at 37 °C and 5% CO2. B Average number of sprouts per spheroid and C average cumulative sprouting length per spheroid (in µm) were determined with Fiji Software. The data are displayed as median (± IQR) of 4 to 5 independent experiments. Mann–Whitney U test was performed (** p ≤ 0.01 for comparison to control, $ p ≤ 0.05 for comparison to FGF-2). D Representative images of spheroids that were untreated (incubated with control medium EBM-2 + 3% FCS; CO), incubated with 10 ng/ml FGF-2 in the presence or absence of 120 nM of CXCL10(1–77) or CXCL10(1–73) are displayed. Scale bar = 100 µm