Journal: Bioengineering & Translational Medicine

Article Title: Extracellular matrix microarchitecture modulates cellular behavior and extracellular vesicle phenotypes in biomimetic tendon models

doi: 10.1002/btm2.70134

Figure Lengend Snippet: (a) Actin (green) and DAPI (blue) stain of tendon derived cells seeded on tissue culture plate (TCP) monolayer controls, healthy mimetic models and diseased mimetic models ( n = 3). Scale bar: 100 μm. (b) Nuclear aspect ratio (NAR) was quantified using ImageJ by converting microscopic image to grayscale and measuring major and minor axes of individual nuclei. A higher major‐to‐minor ratio indicates increased cellular elongations. (c) Cells on the healthy model showed greater elongation than both the monolayer control and diseased model by day 3, while the diseased model also exceeded the monolayer control. By day 5, elongation remained elevated only in the healthy model relative to the diseased, and by day 7, the healthy group exhibited significantly greater elongation than all other models. No significant differences were observed by day 10. Significance was defined as p < 0.05 (*), p < 0.01 (**), p < 0.001 (***), p < 0.0001 (****), ns = not significant.

Article Snippet: Cellular morphology was assessed via actin staining (Invitrogen, Cat. No. A12379) and nuclear counterstaining with DAPI (Fisher Scientific, Cat. No. H‐1200‐10) ( n = 3).

Techniques: Staining, Derivative Assay, Control