FIG. 1.

Rat muscle derived cell (MDC) protein expression and bladder acellular matrix (BAM) scaffold characteristics. MDCs from primary culture were passaged once, seeded on noncoated chamber slides, and then cultured for 1 day in proliferation media (See Methods). Per protein marker (A–C), the total number of nuclei and positively stained nuclei were counted in at least 12 high-powered field (400×) images from at least two different chamber slides. Over 800 nuclei were counted for each protein marker with the number of positive cells expressed as percentage of total nuclei (D). BAM collagen scaffolds were cut to ∼3×1 sheet prior to implantation (E; scaffold was rehydrated in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium for picture contrast). Young's modulus was determined for seven sterilized and rehydrated scaffolds (F). Scaffolds were confirmed to be decellularized via the absence of a protein (Ponceau) or specifically glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH) [blot; (G)], and the absence of nuclei [DAPI; (H)]. Protein expression (G) and nuclear staining via DAPI is demonstrated on BAM scaffold following the addition of MDCs (I). Scale bar=50 μm for all images. Color images available online at www.liebertonline.com/tea