Figure 3

Effects of FGF-2 on the physical properties, sizes and stiffness of 3D HconF spheroids in the absence and presence of TGF-β2. 3D HconF spheroids at Day 6 were treated with a 5 ng/ml solution of TGF-β2 in the absence or presence of 10 ng/ml FGF-2 with an untreated sample as the control. Mean sizes of 3D HconF spheroids were measured and the plotted data are shown in panel A. The physical solidity of their 3D HconF spheroids was analyzed by a micro-squeezer (panel A, scale bar: 100 µm), and the force required to produce a 50% deformity of a single spheroid during a period of 20 s was plotted in panel B. All experiments were performed in triplicate using fresh preparations consisting of 16 spheroids each. Data are presented as the arithmetic mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.001 (ANOVA followed by a Tukey’s multiple comparison test).