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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biomaterials. 2016 Mar 18;91:166–181. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.03.014

Fig. 9. Cell invasion – phenotypic characterization.

Fig. 9

Phenotypic characterization of cell invasion into injected ECM (collagen I+ area) was focused on cell phenotypes found in the brain: neural progenitors as revealed by doublecortin (DCX+), oligodendrocytes (CNPase+), astrocytes (GFAP), microglia (Iba-1+) and endothelial cells (RECA-1+). There was noted invasion of microglia with a bulbar morphology pioneering a path for astrocytes to follow (A). A significant number of DCX+ neural progenitors also invaded the ECM, presumably these were already responding to the surrounding tissue damage (B). A smaller number of endothelial cells were seen invading the ECM material. However, in some cases endothelial cells appeared to organize into tubules, but this was typically in areas where there were remnants of damaged tissue that were engulfed by the ECM hydrogel (C). Oligodendrocytes were also found to invade deep into the ECM material, but cells were mostly of an uncharacteristic bulbar shape (D). In addition to the “indigenous” brain cells, the infiltration of peripheral macrophages and their polarization towards an M1 (CD86+) or M2 (CD206+) phenotype were investigated (E). Almost all CD206+ cells were also positive for CD86.