Fig. 4.
Morphological characteristics of the epithelial structures formed by MCF10A cells on silk scaffold: phalloidin-FITC staining (A) showed lumen formation in the alveolar structure. Positive E-cadherin and collagen IV staining indicated the presence of tight junctions and basement membrane and thus the integrity of the tissue-like structures (B). TEM images showed the ultrastructures of epithelial MCF10 cells in the tri-cultures (D1–2). Cell-cell junctions, such as tight junctions (white arrows), desmosomes (white asterisk) and hemi-desmosomes (white arrowhead) were observed (scale bar=300nm).
