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. 2021 Apr 23;9(5):462. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9050462

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Characterization of the gene expression in aortic valve after bioreactor cultivation compared to static conditions. Valve bearing native aortic roots were cultivated in bioreactor with pulsatile flow (BR) or in a cell culture incubator (CC) for one week using standard medium (BR-std and CC-std) or medium with pro-degenerative conditions (BR-deg and CC-deg). Ovine aortic valve samples were examined using qRT-PCR with specific primers against the housekeeper RLP29, the pro-degenerative markers osteopontin (OPN), collagen type I (COL1A1), alkaline phosphatase (ALPL), and TGFβ as well as HIF1α and VEGF. Values are shown as means and standard error of means, dots indicate eight biological replicates. For statistical analysis Mann–Whitney test was performed to compare standard and pro-degenerative conditions and Kruskal–Wallis test was used to compare native, BR and CC cultivation. Stars indicate significant differences in Dunn’s multiple comparison post-hoc test (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001).