Fig. 2

Mesenchymal transdifferentiation of blood-derived eEPCs in SSc. Expression CD31 was significantly higher in all patients with SSc and in lSSc, dSSc did not differ from Controls (a). b displays aSMA in CD31+ cells with higher percentages in SSc all and in lSSc. c shows results of additional marker staining (FSP-1), the results were comparable to those aquired with aSMA (Data as mean ± SEM, ✻ : p < 0.05 - for exact p-values see text)