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. 2018 Jul 2;19(8):e45964. doi: 10.15252/embr.201845964

Figure 1. Engineered cell microenvironments in PEG hydrogels and their modification by BM‐MSC‐derived ECM .

Figure 1

  1. Schematic of synthetic, FXIIIa cross‐linked PEG hydrogels containing the integrin adhesion ligand RGD and MMP‐sensitive sites.
  2. BM‐MSCs (F‐actin, red) secreted and deposited cell‐derived fibronectin (green) to sites of initial embedment in PEG hydrogels after 4 and 24 h of culture. Scale bar: 20 μm.
  3. Cellular fibronectin modulated spreading of BM‐MSCs. Representative individual cells with intact or knockdown fibronectin expression after 3 days of culture within PEG hydrogels. Scale bar: 20 μm. Insets show overview images of the fibronectin stained hydrogels (green) at the same low magnification as the representative F‐actin images used for quantification of spreading (Scale bar: 500 μm). Quantification of cell spreading: Spreading index between 0 for circular cells and 1 for elongated cells. Box plot (25th and 75th percentiles) with whiskers (5th and 95th percentiles), median (line) and mean (+), n = 9, ANOVA with Bonferroni's post hoc test ****P < 0.0001.
  4. Representative immunofluorescence images of BM‐MSCs (F‐actin, red) and deposited ECM components (green) after 7 days of culture within PEG hydrogels. Scale bar: 10 μm.
Data information: All depicted images in this figure are Z‐projections and exclusively present the extracellular deposited ECM protein.Source data are available online for this figure.