FIGURE 2.

Representative images of cell staining and imaging in alginate beads. A, Beads can be seen at the bottom of the tube with an external light. Care must be taken not to pipette the beads. B, Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) image of two nucleus pulposus cells inside a bead. C, Confocal image of Calcein AM (green) staining of the same cells in B. D‐G, Confocal images of cells in beads stained for F‐Actin (Phalloidin, red) and vimentin (green) of untreated cells (D) and cells after inflammatory treatment with TNF‐α (E‐G), maximum intensity projection of z‐stack. Sections are 1 μm apart. Scale bars are 20 μm. Images were taken with a ×40 objective