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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Dec 17.
Published in final edited form as: Cardiovasc Pathol. 2014 Jun 21;23(6):335–343. doi: 10.1016/j.carpath.2014.06.003

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6.

In situ zymography with quantitative assessments of total protease activity in collagen ECM microenvironment. (A) In situ zymography: representative confocal microscopic images of the emitted fluorescent signals (green) in collagen ECM, following proteolysis of the embedded DQ Gelatin-FITC. Scale bar=200 μm. (B) Total protease activity in cell–ECM constructs was quantified as total fluorescent signal per image volume. TGF-beta1 (10 ng/ml), TIMP-2 (10 nM) and Ala+TIMP-2 (10 nM) increased the total protease activity in the ECM microenvironment as compared to SFM. TIMP-2 yielded more protease activity than TGF-beta1 (P<.05). Ala+TIMP-2 resulted in a higher protease activity than TIMP-2, likely due to a lack of MMP inhibition (P<.05). Bars represent mean±S.D. (N=8 per group). * P<.05; *** P<.001 as compared to SFM.