2.3. Vascular endothelial cell (VEC) culture

Mouse VEC (MILE SVEN1 cell line) was purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA, USA). After digesting VEC with trypsin-EDTA, the cells were incubated in complete medium DMEM (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Atlanta Biologicals, Flower Branch, GA, USA) and 1% penicillin-streptomycin (Millipore Sigma, Burlington, MA, USA) at 37 °C and in 5% CO₂.