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Lust et al. Vessel Plus 2021;5:7 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1209.2020.52 Page 13 of 14

DECLARATIONS
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Ralph Mayer and Dr. Caroline Arnold for their technical assistance
in this study.

Authors’ contributions
Performed experiments, analyzed the data, and revised the manuscript: Lust L, Kuk H, Kohlhaas J
Performed the microarray analysis and the statistical evaluation: Sticht C
Designed the study, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript: Korff T

Availability of data and materials
The raw and normalized data are deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus database (http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/geo/; accession No. GSE121557).

Financial support and sponsorship
This work was supported by the Swiss Society for Phlebology.

Conflicts of interest
All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval and consent to participate
Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were isolated as per approval from the Local Ethical
Committee (document number 336/2005, Heidelberg Germany) and conformed to the principles outlined
in the Declaration of Helsinki (1997). Parental consent was obtained for isolation of HUVECs from the
umbilical cords of newborns.

Consent for publication
Not applicable

Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021.

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