Figure 2

In response to in vivo exposure to hypoxia, VSELs are mobilized from bone marrow (BM) to peripheral blood (PB), and stem cell chemoattractant gradients appear in plasma of mice. Panels A-C demonstrate that hypoxia causes a significant reduction in BM VSEL number, a concurrent increase in PB VSEL count (although not reaching statistical significance) and an overall significant increase in the relative ratio of these stem cells in PB vs. BM. Panels D-F show increased protein expression of three stem cell chemoattractants in response to hypoxia, stromal cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF, does not reach statistical significance). P-values were calculated using unpaired Student's t-test. Box and whisker plots show the upper and lower quartiles (box) and the maximum and minimum values (whiskers).