Fig. 4. TaqMan RT-PCR on HUVECs cultured both in 2D and 3D cultures. HUVECs were cultured either within fibrin gels or in 2D cultures in standard serum-containing EC medium and stimulated with VEGF (25 ng/ml) and FGF-2 (25 ng/ml). The cells were incubated at 37°C and 5% (v/v) CO₂ for the indicated time period, after which total RNA was extracted from the cells and TaqMan RT-PCR performed on these samples. Results are indicated as relative values that have been normalised to the levels of 18S rRNA. Each data point is the average of duplicate samples. The data shown are from a single experiment that is representative of four separate experiments carried out with different batches of HUVECs.