Figure 3. Remodeling behavior of TGFβ3 treated cushions is a balance of contractile differentiation, proliferation, and matrix synthesis.
A) 24 hour TGFβ3 treated cushions upregulate contractile (αSMA, RhoA), proliferation (cyclin b), and extracellular matrix protein (col1α2) encoding genes. TGFβ3 administration also significantly stimulated its own production. mean ± SEM, n = 3–4 pooled samples of 8–10 cushions, *p<0.05, t-test. B) BrdU incorporation data (red) of TGFβ3 treated cushions normalized to DRAQ5 cell nuclei counter stain (blue). BrdU was administered 6 hours prior to completion of 24 hour treatment. Representative confocal images are shown above each bar, with a global view of cushion contained in the inset. mean ± SEM, n = 12, *p<0.0001, t-test.