Figure 1. The effect of TFV on wound healing of uterine epithelial cells and fibroblasts in culture.

(a) Sample images of in vitro wound healing model. Epithelial cells (top left panel) or fibroblasts (bottom left) were grown to confluence on inserts or 24 well plates respectively, as detailed in Methods. Cells were scratched (middle top and bottom panels, white lines indicate the margin of the wound) and wound closure measured. Right top and bottom panels show partial healing that takes place after 24 h. (b) Time course of the effect of TFV inhibition of uterine epithelial cells TER and wound closure following scratch. TER and scratch width measurements of polarized cultures of EM epithelial cells incubated with TFV (1 mg/ml; 3277 μM) 24 h before scratch and 2 h, 24 h and 48 h after scratch. Representative example of TER values (b) and normalized data to % of Pre-scratch TER values (c) in experiments using epithelial cells from 6 patients at 24 h and 48 h after scratch. (d) % of wound closure for epithelial cells from 5 patients at 24 h post scratch. Each circle represents a different patient. The mean and SEM are shown. *p < 0.05. (e) Dose response of the effect of TFV on inhibition of uterine epithelial cell TER. TER was measured for polarized EM epithelial cells incubated with increasing doses of TFV (1 μg/ml up to 1 mg/ml) for 24 h before scratch and 2 h, 24 h and 48 h following scratch. One representative example of three independent experiments with 3 different donors. The mean and SEM are shown from triplicate cultures of cells from a representative patient. ***p < 0.001.