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. 2021 Jul 9;9(7):797. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9070797

Figure 1.

Figure 1

TGF-β and BMP-4 induces differentiation of human ASCs into SMC-like phenotype. (A) Top are representative immunoblots for αSMA, caldesmon and SM22α expression. Corresponding line graph demonstrate the time-course (0 to 7 days) effect of TGF-β and BMP-4 on αSMA, caldesmon and SM22α expression. * p < 0.05 vs. αSMA expression at day 0, ** p < 0.05 vs. SM22α expression at day 0, # p < 0.05 vs. caldesmon expression at day 0. (B) Fluorescence microscopy was also used to detect αSMA, caldesmon and SM22α expression in hASCs at day 0, 4 and 7 of TGF-β and BMP-4 stimulation. Scale bar 100 µm. (C,D) Contractile activity of non-differentiated hASCs (Day 0) and hASCs differentiated for 7 days with TGF-β and BMP-4 embedded into collagen gel matrices. The collagen gel matrices were cultured in the serum-free medium for up to 6 h and gel contraction was photographed at the indicated time points using a digital camera. Corresponding line graph demonstrating the time-course (0 to 6 h) effect of 60 mM of KCl on the area of the gel lattices relative to its original size. * p < 0.05 vs. non-differentiated hASCs at 6 h, ** p < 0.05 vs. non-differentiated hASCs at 6 h. All results are mean ± SEM of 5 experiments.