Figure 4.

Type 1 collagen culture effects on TGF-β1 induced α-smooth muscle actin levels and β-catenin accumulation in DD and PF-cells. Representative western immunoblot analysis of PF and DD cells cultured on tissue culture plastic ("Plastic") or type 1 collagen ("Collagen"), treated with TGFβ-1 or vehicle and assessed for α smooth muscle actin (A) and β-catenin (B) protein levels. β-actin levels (C) were assessed to confirm equal loading. Pooled densitometric analysis of α smooth muscle actin (D) and β-catenin (E) band density normalized to β-actin band density from triplicate experiments are shown. A significant increase in β-catenin band density after TGFβ-1 treatment of DD cells cultured on collagen (*, p < 0.05) is evident relative to treated cells on plastic while the significant increase in α smooth muscle actin band density after TGFβ-1 treatment of DD cells growing on plastic (*, p < 0.05) is attenuated by collagen culture.