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Figure 5 Nicotine stimulates endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) transmigration. Nicotine stimulates EPC transmigration through human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) monolayer: transmigrated cells at the bottom of the porous membrane in the vehicle (A) and nicotine (B) group. Endothelial progenitor cells were labeled with CellTracker before co-incubation. Significantly more transmigrated EPCs were observed when EPCs were pre-treated with nicotine (C). Pre-treatment of the endothelial cell monolayer with nicotine also increased EPC transmigration, and the effects of nicotine treatment on EPCs or HUVECs appeared to be additive with each other, or with stem-cell-derived factor (SDF)-1 (C). For each group, n = 5. *p < 0.01 versus control.
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