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. 2013 Sep 2;8(9):e73161. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073161

Figure 6. Phase contrast and immunofluorescent images of ECFCs on coverglasses in different media.

Figure 6

Phase contrast pictures, after 14 days of culture, at 10×magnification show the complete change in ECFC morphology in bare medium +TGFβ1, where cells are elongated and they have lost the cobblestone morphology, still retained by ECFCs cultured in the other media. Immunostaining for CD31 (red), αSMA (green) and DAPI (blue), confirmed the differences observed by optical imaging, with loss of CD31 in part of the cells cultured in full medium +TGFβ1 and bare medium +TGFβ1, and αSMA stress fibers only detected in bare medium +TGFβ1. Immunostaining for collagen type III (green), IV (red) and DAPI (blue) showed a decrease in matrix production in bare medium with or without TGFβ1. This result was also confirmed for collagen type I (red). The scalebar represents 100 µm.