Fig. 2.

MTA induces collagen synthesis in MC3T3-E1 cells. (A) The cells were cultured for 8 days in the absence or presence of MTA at indicated concentrations. Whole-cell lysates were subjected to western blotting (A). A quantitative analysis of intensity for each immunoreacted band for Type I collagen α1 (Co1a) (B) and Type III collagen α1 (Col3a) (C) was performed by Molecular Imager FX (Bio-Rad). Total RNA was extracted, reverse-transcribed and amplified by real-time PCR with primer sets for Col1a1 and Col3a1. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 4). Statistical significance of differences between MTA treated group and corresponding time-matched vehicle control is indicated by *P < 0.05 and ***P < 0.001.