Figure 1.

Effect of mechanical stress on the proliferation of cultured upper back and medial arm skin fibroblasts. Representative images showing the difference in cell proliferations of in vitro cultured skin fibroblasts from scapular upper back (A) and medial side of upper arm (B), respectively, at individual time-points under microscopic examination (scale bar=200 um). Panel (C) and (D) show the cell proliferation index of skin fibroblasts using CCK-8 cell count assays (C, non-stretched fibroblasts; D, stretched fibroblasts). Data are presented as mean values ± SD; * and † denote a significant difference (P<0.05) relative to medial arm fibroblasts stressed for 36 and 48 hours, respectively.