Figure 5.

Substratum compliance affects HTM cell area and aspect ratio before, during, and after Lat-B treatment. During the course of Lat-B treatment, HTM cells on 4 kPa and 90 kPa surfaces did not experience significant changes in total area. In contrast, HTM cells on 25 kPa were significantly smaller during Lat-B treatment compared with pretreatment and cell TCP surfaces were significantly smaller after 30 minutes of Lat-B treatment than at any other time point measured. One hour after Lat-B removal, HTM cells on TCP surfaces had returned to their pretreatment area compared with softer hydrogels (4 to 25 kPa) which took longer to recover (A). Data trends on all surfaces demonstrate that HTM cells are more elongated before Lat-B treatment. During the course of Lat-B treatment, all cells became less elongated (B). All data are reported as mean ± SEM (***P < 0.001).