Fig. 6
Altered feather mesenchymal cell migratory patterns upon inhibition of VGCCs and gap junctions. a 4D cell nucleus (H2B-GFP) imaging of elongating feather buds on H&H 34 skins. Left-most panel, 3D rendering of the feather buds at Time 0, with the mesenchyme highlighted in white. Middle panel, Mesenchymal cell nuclei were segmented (green dots) and their displacement vectors (yellow arrows) were mapped. Right panel, Cell movement trajectories. Different trajectory colors represent time (′ denotes minutes). Scale bar, 50 μm. b Plotting individual mesenchymal cell positions along the X (anterior–posterior), Y (left–right), and Z axis (up–down) over time. Black line indicates averaged cell position over time. The averaged velocities (v̅ is the averaged displacement along the corresponding axis divided by time) are shown above each plot. c Angle histogram plots illustrate the cell displacement angle in the XZ plane (0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° represent posterior, upward, anterior, and downward directions, respectively). Cells tracked: n = 378 for controls, n = 316 for Nifedipine, and n = 278 for PMA-treated samples. The averaged displacement angles (ϴ̅) were significantly altered upon Nifedipine or PMA treatment. **P < 0.01 (Watson’s U2 test)
