Figure 3.

RT-PCR of TGF-β ligands, receptors, and modulators during adult cutaneous wound repair. RT-PCR was performed on RNA isolated from 12-hour to 14-day wounds and nonwounded controls (N = 16 wounds per time point). To determine relative changes in mRNA levels after wounding, densitometry values for each blot were corrected to GAPDH expression at each time point and normalized by setting the highest value to 1. The results are depicted graphically as the mean ± SD (A–C). An unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test was performed to detect statistically significant differences in gene expression between nonwounded controls and adult wounds at different postinjury time points, which are underlined (A′–C′). A representative blot is shown for each TGF-β ligand (A′), receptor (B′), or modulator (C′), with the corresponding range of P values on the right. All of the underlined time points represent statistically significant increases in gene expression relative to nonwounded controls, except for the 12-hour fibromodulin time point (in bold), which represents decreased expression levels relative to the control (C′). The range of P values is shown and is marked with an asterisk if P < 0.05. A representative adult GAPDH PCR reaction is shown (inset).