Figure 5.

Adhesion of adult dermal fibroblasts to CCN2, but not fibronectin, requires the MEK/ERK pathway. Fibroblasts were allowed to adhere for 40 min onto fibronectin (FN), CCN2, or BSA. Before performing the adhesion assay, suspended fibroblasts were preincubated, as indicated, in the presence or absence of soluble heparin (50 μg/ml) or the MEK1/2 inhibitor U0126 (10 μM). After a washing step, adherent cells were quantified as described in Materials and Methods. Assays were performed in 96-well plates, each condition, in triplicate, two independent times (N = 6). Average optical density values ± SEM are shown.