Figure 1. Silencing MyoIIA prevents fibroblasts from spreading in bipolar shape with actin stress fibers during overnight culture.
A) Representative immunoblotting results showing MyoIIA and MyoIIB expression after treatment of cells by isoform-specific siRNA gene silencing. B) Mock and myosin II isoform-silenced cells as indicated were cultured 18 h on collagen matrices in DMEM/FBS. At the end of the incubations, samples were fixed and stained for actin. Silencing MyoIIA but not MyoIIB inhibited cells from developing actin stress fibers. The effect was specific for MyoIIA since cells treated with siRNA to silence MyoIIB showed morphological changes identical to mock-treated cells. Bar = 50 μm.