FIGURE 7.

Endothelial stress fiber formation and focal adhesion assembly induced by melanoma contacts were suppressed after knockdown of B-Raf(V600E) or PAR-1. A, HUVEC untransfected or transfected with siRNA against PAR-1 were co-cultured with melanoma cells transfected with scrambled siRNA or siRNA against B-Raf(V600E) in the presence or absence of PFP. HUVECs were stained with rhodamine-phalloidin and paxillin antibody. The right panel shows magnified views of the boxed area in the merged images. Bar = 10 μm. (Green = paxillin and red = F-actin.) B and C, quantification of the average number and size (μm²) of paxillin-containing focal adhesions in HUVECs using ImageJ software. 12 cells were analyzed per condition in each experiment. Values are mean ± S.E. *, p < 0.05 compared with −PFP; #, p < 0.05 compared with scrambled, +PFP.