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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Apr 6.
Published in final edited form as: J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016 Apr 5;67(13):1556–1568. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2016.01.030

FIGURE 5. CCN5 Inhibits Transdifferentiation of Fibroblasts Into Myofibroblasts.

FIGURE 5

(A) Experimental schema for B and C. (B) Heart sections were co-immunostained with anti-vimentin (red) and anti-α-SMA (green). Cells positive for both vimentin and α-SMA (arrows) underwent fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transdifferentiation. (C) The fraction of α-SMA-positive cells that were vimentin-positive is plotted (n = 3). (D) Fibroblasts were cultured in CM-Con or CM-CCN5 in the presence or absence of TGF-β. Cells were co-stained with anti-α-SMA or DAPI. (E) Collagen gel lattices were made and cultured under the same conditions as shown in D. After 48 h, areas of the collagen lattice were measured. Representative images of collagen gel lattices are shown (left), and areas of the collagen gel relative to those of the control gel are plotted (right) (n = 3). (F) RNA was obtained from the same sets of cells as in D. qRT-PCR analyses of α-SMA and collagen I were performed (n = 6). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. Abbreviations as in Figures 2 to 4.