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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Feb 13.
Published in final edited form as: J Endod. 2020 Sep;46(9 Suppl):S90–S100. doi: 10.1016/j.joen.2020.06.033

Figure 5.

Figure 5.

Endothelial cells (HUVECs) co-cultured with bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSC) either in 2D or in 3D. A visible increase the expression of the pericyte-related marker (alpha SMA) is seen in stem cells cultured on hydrogels of (A) low stiffness versus substrates of (B) higher elastic modulus. The effect is virtually lost when (C and D) cells are treated with blebbistatin, a pharmacological inhibitor of mechanotransduction effect. A similar trend of pericyte differentiation potential by stem cells co-cultured with endothelial cells is seen when cells are cultured in 3D, where (E, G) lower stiffness enhances cell differentiation in comparison to (F, H) higher stiffness hydrogels. Of note, what is considered low and high stiffness for 2D and 3D cell culture is visibly different. Reproduced from (31)