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. 2019 Nov 3;20(21):5474. doi: 10.3390/ijms20215474

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Gene expression levels of tendon extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules (a) and intracellular tendon markers (b) in tendon scaffold-seeded MSC. Data are given as “fold change” (FC) to the respective internal control (w/o TGFβ3), which is displayed as a horizontal line intersecting the x-axis at zero. Tendon scaffolds seeded with MSC were either directly loaded with TGFβ3 (scaffold-associated) or supplemented with TGFβ3 added to the cell culture medium (dissolved). Part (a) includes the gene expression of collagen 1A2 (Col1A2), collagen 3A1 (Col3A1), decorin (DCN), and tenascin c (TNC), as well as the expression of osteopontin (OPN), which is related to osteogenic differentiation. Part (b) shows the gene expression of scleraxis (SCX), smad8 (SMAD8), and mohawk (MKX). The total number of scaffolds within each group was 42 (n = 42). Bars represent the median fold changes values and error bars the 95% confidence interval; * illustrates significant differences compared to the untreated control (w/o TGFβ3) (p < 0.05).