Fig 2: Immunohistochemical staining of a saphenous vein wall harvested from a patient diagnosed with triple-vessel CAD. Three serial histological sections of a graft wall obtained from a 71-year-old patient who developed early graft failure 11 months after coronary artery bypass grafting (the same patients as mentioned in Fig. 7). VEGF-C (a), VEGFR-3 (b), and CAV3 (c) shown to be expressed by immunohistochemical staining in smooth muscle cells of the tunica media (TM). In addition, VEGFR-3 is strongly present in endothelial cells of the tunica intima (TI). d Negative control. TA tunica adventitia

Fig 3: Immunohistochemistry of an internal thoracic artery wall harvested from a patient diagnosed with triple-vessel CAD. Immunohistochemical staining of VEGF-C (a), CAV2 (b), and CAV3 (c) in an internal thoracic artery graft harvested from a 71-year-old patient who developed early graft failure 11 months after coronary artery bypass grafting. Intensive VEGF-C and CAV3 expression is observed in the smooth muscle cells of the tunica media (TM) and in the endothelial cells of the tunica intima (TI). The presence of immunopositive expression of CAV2 (c) is limited to smooth muscle cells of the tunica media (TM). Expression of all analyzed proteins is present in the small blood vessels localized in the tunica adventitia (TA, arrows). d Negative control

Fig 4: Saphenous vein wall harvested from a patient diagnosed with double-vessel CAD showing immunohistochemical staining. VEGF-C (a) and VEGFR-3 (b) reactivity in a graft wall obtained from a 67-year-old patient who developed the early graft restenosis within 7 months after coronary artery bypass grafting (the same patient as mentioned in Fig. 6). VEGF-C is localized exclusively within individual smooth muscle cells of the tunica media (TM). Cells with positive VEGFR-3 expression are situated in endothelial cells of the tunica intima (TI). c Negative control. TA tunica adventitia

Fig 5: Immunohistochemical staining of an internal thoracic artery and saphenous vein wall harvested from a patient with no evidence of luminal stenosis 12 months after CABG. Immunohistochemical staining of VEGF-C (a) and CAV2 (b) in an internal thoracic artery (ITA) graft and VEGFR-3 (c) in saphenous vein (SV) transplant harvested from a 65-year-old patient diagnosed with triple-vessel CAD. Note that lack of CAV2 expression within smooth muscle cells (SMC) in ITA wall is accompanied by VEGF-C positive expression in the same area. In SV tissue sample harvested from the same patient, no VEGRR-3 expression was found. d Negative control. TI tunica intima, TM tunica media, TA tunica adventitia