Fig. 7.
Effects of elastic moduli of gels (Egel) on phosphorylated integrin-linked kinase (ILK) expression. A: confocal images of ASMCs stained for phosphorylated ILK (green color). B: inverse dependency of the phosphorylated ILK expression level on Egel. C: correlation between the phosphorylated ILK expression level and VEGF secretion level. *P < 0.05, statistically significant difference between all groups in B. Bars and error bars represent the means ± SD. Scale bar = 50 μm. In these experiments, human ASMCs were seeded on the collagen-conjugated polyacrylamide gels at a density 1,000 cells/cm2. Phosphorylated ILK was detected with fluorescent antibodies, and its expression was quantified by the intensity of the fluorescent signal.