Figure 8.
TNF-α secretion of TCL-treated construct co-cultures increases with stiffness, decreases with construct co-culture, and diminishes when macrophages are stimulated toward an anti-inflammatory phenotype. In unstimulated co-culture conditions, TNF-α production increases with stiffness. Similarly, TNF-α secretion also trends higher for stiff construct co-culture compared to the soft construct condition in the LPS-stimulated groups. Interestingly, construct addition significantly decreases the TNF-α production compared to macrophage-only controls in LPS-stimulated groups. For IL-10 stimulation, a decrease in TNF-α levels is seen with increasing construct stiffness. Statistics: One-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey’s HSD (for each stimulation condition), α = 0.05, n = 5-6 per group. TNF-α = tumor necrosis factor alpha; TCL = transforming growth factor beta 1/chondroitinase ABCeng./lysyl oxidase-like 2; MΦ = macrophage, LPS = lipopolysaccharide; IL-10 = interleukin 10; ANOVA = analysis of variance; HSD = honestly significant difference.