Fibroblast growth factor 2 inhibits myofibroblastic activation of valvular interstitial cells
Fig 3
FGF-2 and TGF-β differentially influence cell morphology.
(A) depicts representative images of hVICs on day 2 and 4, immunostained for α-SMA (red), vimentin (green), and DAPI (blue). Scale bars represent 100μm. The following morphological characteristics are derived from pooling days 2 and 4, as the 2-way ANOVA showed that the ‘time’ factor did not significantly affect any parameter. Comparisons are ordinary one-way ANOVAs between control and the experimental groups. For image analysis, 6 biological replicates were used (n = 6); 6 representative images were taken from each biological replicate per treatment per timepoint, representing >75 cells per experimental group. These are: (B) cell area in μm2, (C) aspect ratio, the long axis divided by the short axis of each cell, (D) the ‘circularity’ of each cell. This measure is defined by 4π(area/perimeter2), and E) the length of the major axis. * p<0.05, #p<0.01, error bars represent 95% CI.