Figure 2.

Effects of PRP on fibroblast to myofibroblast transition: Cell morphology and type-1 collagen expression. Fibroblasts were induced to differentiate into myofibroblasts by culturing in differentiation medium (DM) in the presence or absence of PRP for 72 h. The cells cultured in proliferation medium (PM) served as control undifferentiated cells. (A–F) Representative confocal fluorescence images of the cells (A–C) stained with Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated WGA (green) to reveal the plasma membrane and (D–F) immunostained with antibodies against type-1 collagen (green) and counterstained with propidium iodide (PI), to label nuclei. Scale bar: 50 µm. (G) Histogram showing the densitometric analysis of the intensity of type-1 collagen fluorescence signal performed on digitized images in 20 regions of interest (ROI) of 100 μm² for each confocal stack (10). Data are reported as mean ± S.E.M. and represent the results of at least three independent experiments performed in triplicate. Significance of difference: * p < 0.05 versus PM; ° p <0.05 versus DM (One-way ANOVA followed by the Tukey post hoc test).