The comparison between measured absolute metabolic activity

after 24 and 96 h will allow for an estimation of the growth in the

course of 96 h.

Fig. 2 Exemplary data of growth kinetics over the course of 96 h. Rabbit endothelial progenitor cells (rbEPC)

were seeded on day one on either uncoated vs. fibronectin coated grafts made from bacterial nanocellulose.

The proposed methods enabled us to observe distinct differences between the proliferative and metabolic

activity of rbEPCs cultivated on the different graft types. (a) Cumulative lactate production over the course of

96 h. The data show that the cells seeded on fibronectin coated grafts produced more lactate compared to the

uncoated grafts, indicating enhanced metabolic activity of the endothelial cells in the fibronectin group. (b)

Metabolic activity as indicated by WST-1 assay. For both graft types used, the cells show growth over the time

course of 96 h, but in the fibronectin group, the considerably higher growth activity indicates higher cell

numbers attached to the graft in this group. (c) Calculated seeding efficiency from WST-1 proliferation assay

data after 24 h. Compared to the uncoated group, the fibronectin group shows higher adherence of the seeded

cells, reaching approximately 50% of the controls seeded under optimal conditions in a 12-well plate

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Max Wacker et al.