Figure 3.

ECM stiffness does not sensitize organoids to treatment by enhancing cell proliferation. (A) Representative images of MCF10A, T4-2, and HCC70 cells at day 5 of culture on soft or stiff substrates stained for phosphorylated histone H3 at Ser10 (red) and DAPI (blue). (B) Bar graph showing mean ± SEM with individual values of the percentage of phosphorylated histone H3 (Ser10)–positive MCF10A, T4-2, and HCC70 cells on day 5 of culture on soft or stiff substrates. (C–E) Bar graphs showing mean ± SEM with individual values of the percentage of cleaved caspase 3–positive cells from (C) MCF10A (n = 3 or 4), (D) T4-2, and (E) HCC70 (n = 3 or 4) cultures on soft and stiff substrates with increasing doses of TRAIL. At least 300 cells on soft substrate and 700 cells on stiff substrate were counted in each experiment (n = 3 or 4). All statistical analyses were performed using two-tailed t test (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01). Unless otherwise noted, n = 3 for all experiments. All scale bars are 100 µm.