Skip to main content
. 2010 Sep 15;39(1):119–131. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkq773

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

TGFβ-induced myofibroblast-like differentiation of WI38 cells is not affected by PPARβ/δ ligands. (A) Cells were treated with TGFβ1 (2 ng/ml) or solvent for the indicated times, and the relative expression levels of ACTA2 and COL4A1 were determined by RT-qPCR. ***, significant difference to solvent-treated sample (P < 0.001 by t-test). (B) Expression of ACTA2, COL4A1 and SM22A after 24 h treatment with TGFβ1 (2 ng/ml), GW501516 (0.3 µM), L165,041 (2 µM), TGFβ1 plus PPARβ/δ ligand (as indicated) or solvent determined by RT-qPCR. No significant differences were detectable (t-test, P > 0.1) in PPARβ/δ ligand-treated cells in either the absence or presence of TGFβ. (C) Staining by indirect immunofluorescence of SMA stress fibers (green) in WI38 cells treated with solvent or TGFβ for 24 h as in (A). Nuclei were visualized by Hoechst 33258 staining (blue). (D) Quantitative evaluation of SMA fibers stained by immunofluorescence after treatment of WI38 cells with TGFβ or TGFβ plus GW501516 for 24 h. Cells showing strong, weak or no staining were counted separately. For both samples, a total of 1500 cells in 16 microscopic fields were counted. Error bars represent the standard deviation for individual field counts.