Fig. 3.

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β₁ increases myofibroblast markers. TGF-β₁ treatment increased both cadherin 11 (CDH11) and smooth muscle α-actin (α-SMA) expression, overriding their normally inverse relationship (A–C). Overall contractility was increased with TGF-β₁ but was still dependent on CDH11 deletion (D). TGF-β₁ slightly increased CDH2 expression (E) while increasing the percentage of cells expressing α-SMA (F), despite decreasing percentages of aortic valve interstitial cells (AVICs) expressing CDH11 (G), as measured by FACS. IL-6 secretion was increased with TGF-β₁ treatment but remained barely detectable in CDH11^+/− and CDH11^−/− AVICs (H). *P < 0.05 compared with wild-type (WT) cells unless otherwise indicated. 2-D, two dimensional.