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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biomaterials. 2011 Jun;32(16):3921–3930. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.02.019

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Effects of collagen gel and TGF-β on gene expression and MSC differentiation. (A) MSCs were cultured on collagen-coated stiff substrates or collagen gel for 2 days in the absence or presence of TGF-β. Cells were lysed for qPCR analysis. * indicates significant difference (P<0.05). # indicates significant difference from the gene expression in MSCs on stiff substrate without TGF-β (P<0.05). § indicates significant difference from the gene expression in MSCs on stiff substrate with TGF-β (P<0.05). (B-E) Differentiation of MSCs into SMC lineage. MSCs were cultured on collagen-coated stiff substrates or collagen gel for 2 weeks in the absence or presence of TGF-β. Cells were double-stained for SM α-actin (red) and calponin-1 (green). (F-I) Under the same culture condition as in B-E, GAGs were stained by Alcian Blue. Scale Bars are 100 μm.