FIGURE 2.

Morphological assessment of Caco-2 epithelia under alternate growth conditions. (A) H&E and (B) toluidine blue staining of control models where Caco-2 cells were cultured on either Transwell^® membranes alone; Transwell^® models cultured in conditioned medium from CCD-18co or HDFn fibroblasts; or Caco-2 cells in direct co-culture with the two types of fibroblasts on Alvetex^® Scaffold. Representative H&E and toluidine blue images of human small intestinal tissues are also shown for comparison. Note how the Caco-2 cell morphology changes and cells become more columnar, particularly in the 3D co-culture models. Scale bars: 20 μm (A) and 5 μm (B).