Figure 2

Growth colony formation and viability of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). A) Enzymatically isolated HUVEC first grew in scattered colonies and demonstrated typical rounded, cobblestone-like morphology. After reaching confluence in primary cultures (passage 0) cells were used for further cryopreservation studies. Viability of short-term (group A, n = 4) and long-term (group B, n = 5) cryopreserved cells from primary cultures (passage 0) was studied directly after B) thawing and C) in passage 1 of recultivation using trypan blue staining assay. By comparison, non- cryopreserved fresh cells (n = 4) from primary cultures and passage 1 were analyzed in parallel as control group. The number of viable cells divided by the number of total cells results in cell viability (%).