Figure 9.

FAK is required for matrix contraction. Untreated fibroblasts derived from wild-type (+/+) or FAK-deficient (−/−) mouse embryos or fibroblasts treated with LPA (+LPA) were mixed together with fibrin-FN (A) or fibrin-FN + 70Ten (B) and allowed to polymerize in a 48-well dish. Matrix contraction data are expressed as the mean ± SEM of duplicate experiments. The addition of LPA significantly stimulated contraction of FAK-deficient cells, compared with untreated cells (^★p < 0.05; Student's paired t test).