Figure 3.

Hypoxia increases fibronectin, FN, and crosslinking gene, LOX, expression and results in a distinct fibronectin matrix assembly. (a) FN and LOX are significantly upregulated, while MMP-2 is downregulated in the chemically induced hypoxia (n = 8 biological replicates). (b) LOX was significantly upregulated in 1% oxygen (n = 8 biological replicates). (c) Fluorescent confocal microscopy images of the mono-culture AT constructs in normoxic (thermal map on the left and magnified view of ROI on the right) or hypoxic conditions (thermal map on the left and magnified view of ROI on the right) after 7 days (arrows point to the fibrillar structure of fibronectin, scale bar-50 µm, magnified images-20 µm). (d) Cross-section of AT constructs, fluorescent confocal microscopy images were taken at least 20 µm above the glass coverslip. (e) Hypoxia increases FN and LOX expression, and remodels fibronectin matrix into a fibrillar structure. Data are presented as means $\pm$ SEM. Comparisons between groups and statistical analysis were performed using two-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01).