Figure 2. Time course morphology observation of rat aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs) grown on different coatings and receiving cyclic mechanical stretches.
Silicone elastomer chambers were precoated with type I collagen at 25 μg/ml (A) or fibronectin at 10 μg/ml (B) for overnight incubation at 4 °C. About 8 × 105 of SMCs were then seeded onto silicone chambers for 3 h till cellular attachment and spreading. The morphology was observed and documented after the cells received uniaxial and cyclic 10% deformation at constant frequency (1 Hz) for the indicated consecutive durations; scale bars = 20 μm.