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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jul 28.
Published in final edited form as: ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2020 Mar 26;3(4):2360–2369. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.0c00100

Figure 8.

Figure 8.

Substrate stiffness and ECM coating alter VSMC’s cytoskeleton organization. (A, B) Representative 30 μm × 30 μm AFM deflection images for VSMCs cultured on 28 kPa (left) and 103 kPa (right) are seen in the top row of each panel. The bottom row of each panel displays a circular histogram, showing the normalized stress fiber orientation of each corresponding deflection image. (C) The VSMCs cultured on the 103 kPa COL1-coated substrate displayed a more aligned stress fiber organization than those on the 28 kPa substrate. (D) On FN-coated substrates, VSMCs on the softer 28 kPa substrate displayed the more aligned stress fiber architecture. (E) Summarized percent frequency of dominant fiber orientation (−20°~+20°) showed a significantly more orientated stress fiber architecture on the 103 kPa COL1-coated substrate. (F) The summarized percentage frequency of dominant fiber orientation (−20°~+20°) showed the opposite trend for the FN-coated substrate, with VSMCs on the 28 kPa substrate having a more aligned stress fiber orientation. Data were presented as mean ± SEM. *P ≤ 0.05.