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Fig. 1 | Biomaterials Research

Fig. 1

From: Identification of cell-biologic mechanisms of coronary artery spasm and its ex vivo diagnosis using peripheral blood-derived iPSCs

Fig. 1

Hypercontractility of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from vasospastic angina (VSA) patients. (A) Schematic summary of the study. We obtained 10 mL of peripheral blood from patients with VSA and cultured circulating multipotent stem (CiMS) cells. Thereafter, we generated VSA patient-specific iPSCs from these CiMS cells and differentiated iPSCs into both VSMCs and endothelial cells (ECs). (B, C) In a contraction assay using a single-cell model, 250 μM of carbachol treatment (a cholinomimetic vasoactive agonist) induced stronger contraction in VSMCs from VSA patients than in those from normal subjects. (n = 7 per group; scale bar, 5 μm). NC Negative control group with a negative provocation test, VA Vasospastic angina group with a positive provocation test. The black arrows denote the contraction area of the VSMCs. (D, E) Collagen gel contraction assays for 2 dimensional (2D) sheet models were examined using normal control subject-derived VSMCs and VSA patient-derived VSMCs. Treatment with 1 mM carbachol for 48 h induced a strong contraction of sheets derived from the VSMCs of VSA patients, as observed in the 2D sheet model (n = 7 per group). The areas circled with yellow dash lines denote the sizes of the collagen gels, and the yellow arrows indicate the contraction of the collagen gels

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