Fig 5. BMSCs with attenuated α6 integrin expression proliferate significantly less than control cells expressing the shNT or wild type BMSCs.
A: Representative immunofluorescent images from day 7 3D co-cultures with mCherry-expressing HUVECs cultured on microcarrier beads in the presence of (a) wild type BMSCs tagged with a green cell tracker dye (WT), GFP-expressing (b) BMSCs transduced with non-targeting (NT) shRNA (shNT), (c) BMSCs with silenced α6 integrin (ITGA6-KD), or (d) no BMSCs. B, C: The total DNA extracted from HUVEC/BMSC co-cultures (B) or from BMSC mono-cultures (C) in 3D fibrin gels was assessed as a measure of cell proliferation over a 7 day culture period. *** refers to p ≤ 0.001 relative to the wild-type and shNT controls (n=3).