Figure 3.

Following persistent stimulation of MSCs with TNFα + IL-1β, the resulting CAF-like cells express typical CAF markers. Human MSCs were exposed to persistent TNFα + IL-1β stimulation (concentrations as in Figure 1) or to vehicles, generally for 14–18 days. The expressions of vimentin (A) and fibroblast activation protein (FAP) (B) were determined by confocal analyses. (A1,B1) Two representative images are demonstrated for each treatment, derived from a representative experiment out of n = 3. Bar, 25 μm. (A2,B2) Quantitative analyses of the fluorescence intensity performed by the ImageJ program on images of the representative experiment (n ≥ 5 images for each treatment). ** p < 0.01.