Independent Adipogenic and Contractile Properties of Fibroblasts in Graves’ Orbitopathy: An In Vitro Model for the Evaluation of Treatments
Figure 4
GO cells spontaneously differentiate into adipocytes in 3D cultures.
Control (CO2-4) or GO (HO1-3) cells were seeded into collagen gels and cultured for 5 days in standard culture medium. The gels were then left untreated (0 mmHg) or subjected to pressure (28 mmHg) for a further 48 hours, followed by (A) fixation and staining with Oil-Red-O or (B) RNA extraction and qPCR. (A) Adipocyte differentiation in control and GO cells, shown as the percent of Oil-Red-O positive cells in each cell line (mean +/− SEM, n = 3). Student’s t test was used to compare adipogenesis levels between no pressure and pressure for each cell line (* p<0.05, ***p<0.001), and between control cells and GO cells overall (significantly different under no pressure condition, p = 0.001). (B) PPARg expression (normalised to GAPDH, levels) as measured by q-PCR. Shown is the mean +/− SEM for 3 experiments (* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001).