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Figure 2

From: Acellular bioscaffolds redirect cardiac fibroblasts and promote functional tissue repair in rodents and humans with myocardial injury

Figure 2

Intact Bioscaffolds Attenuate Human Cardiac Fibroblast Activation and ECM Remodeling. Representative confocal images of matrices embedded within bioscaffolds showing constructs without cardiac fibroblasts (A), cardiac fibroblast within intact scaffolds (B), and cardiac fibroblast within neutralized scaffolds (C). Morphological assessments of cardiac fibroblasts within intact versus neutralized scaffold-matrix constructs are shown (D–G; N = 5/group). We assessed alpha-SMA protein expression by flow cytometry and compared cardiac fibroblasts on intact versus neutralized scaffolds. Data is expressed relative to cardiac fibroblasts on tissue culture plastic (H; N = 6/group). Cell-mediated ECM remodeling was quantified by determining the collagen fiber alignment index and compared between matrices embedded with intact and neutralized bioscaffolds (I; N = 4/group). Values are reported as mean ± SD. Statistical significance was determined by the Mann-Whitney test. Scale bar = 20 µm.

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