Figure 3.

(A) Cell sheets contract after treatment and dispase lifting. For each treatment, the dispase-lifted cell sheet exhibited a significant increase in nuclei density compared to the unlifted cells, indicating cell sheet contraction (#p<0.05 for the baseline case versus the matched baseline+d case). The notation “+ d” indicates the condition after dispase treatment. (B) After siRNA transfection to suppress either K5, K14 or both, without dispase lifting, no significant difference in nuclear density was observed among all treated samples. (C) After dispase lifting the siRNA transfected samples, all sheets contracted, but K5 and K14 siRNA treated contracted significantly less than the sample treated with negative control siRNA (*p<0.05, **p<0.01).