Figure 4.
Prophylactic NAC intervention improved the function of BM ECs in the EC < 0.1% group to levels similar to those in the EC ≥ 0.1% group post-HSCT. Representative images of typical BM ECs characterized by double-positive staining (merged in yellow) of both DiI-AcLDL (red) and FITC-UEA-1 (green) (A; original magnification ×4) and transwell migration assays of cultivated BM ECs at day 7 in culture (B; original magnification ×10). The migrated cells (purple) were stained with crystal violet. Quantification of BM double-positive staining cells (C) and EC migration (D) per field of view were compared at −14 days and 0 days pre-HSCT and +1 month and +2 months post-HSCT between the EC < 0.1% with prophylactic NAC intervention group and the EC ≥ 0.1% group. The cells in 3 random fields were counted and averaged. The data are expressed as the mean and SEM. Statistical analyses were performed using 1-way ANOVA for comparisons among the groups. Subject variables were compared using the χ2 test for categorical variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables. P < .05 was considered statistically significant and values are provided in the figure.