Comparison of the clonogenic potential of freshly isolated AC133+ cells (day 0 cells) and AC133-derived proliferating cells cultured for 8 days (day 8 cells) and 14 days (day 14 cells), respectively, in liquid culture with stem cell growth factor (SCGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
As demonstrated in the 3 left panels of bars, a different number of day 0 input cells were tested to evaluate their capacity to form endothelial colonies (colony-forming unit endothelial cell, CFU-EC). The input of 5 × 104 AC133+ progenitor cells was found to produce reliable numbers of putative CFU-EC and was then compared with the input of 5 × 104 day 8 cells and day 14 cells, respectively. The results of 4 independent experiments are shown, each experiment was performed in quadruplicate. Abbreviations: d0 = day 0 cells, freshly isolated AC133+progenitor cells; d8 = day 8 cells, AC133-derived cells cultured for 8 days in liquid culture; d14 = day 14 cells, AC133-derived cells cultured for 14 days in liquid culture; BFU-E = burst-forming unit erythrocyte; CFU-GEMM, colony-forming unit granulocyte-erythrocyte-macrophage-megakaryocyte; CFU-GM = colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage.
