Fig. 2. Immunocytochemical identification of smooth muscle cells cultured from rabbit femoral arteries. Using smooth muscle–specific α-actin and desmin antibodies, the smooth muscle cells cultured from femoral arteries were identified with staining of the antibodies, but not those of fibroblasts or endothelial cells. The nuclei are stained blue with hematoxylin (black circles). Smooth muscle cells were stained with brown precipitation of DAB for desmin and actin (dark areas), and some nonsmooth muscle cells from the first week of migration are not stained (arrows, actin-staining [first week]). This figure shows that the cultured cells from femoral arteries were mostly (> 99%) smooth muscle cells from the second week of migration.