Figure 5.

Adiponectin prevents stiffness-associated FAK phosphorylation. Following HSC procurement from rat liver, cells were plated onto tissue culture plastic coated with gel matrices of increasing stiffness (0.4–15 kPa), as well as fibronectin. A) Untreated HSCs (top panels) or HSCs treated with ADP355 (middle panels) and adiponectin (bottom panels) for 6 h were analyzed by immunofluorescence microscopy (blue, DAPI nuclear staining; green, p-FAK Tyr576/577 staining) to determine presence of p-FAK. As can be seen, there was decreased staining intensity for p-FAK in adiponectin-treated HSCs, particularly at 9 and 15 kPa. Here, fibronectin served as positive control for maximal stiffness equivalent to tissue culture plastic. Original view was ×400. B) Densitometry of relative intensity of p-FAK staining following ADP355 or adiponectin treatment (middle and bottom panels in A) compared to controls (top panels in A). Images are representative of multiple independent experiments. *P < 0.05.