COLOCALIZATION OF CELL ADHESION PROTEINS IN 3D TISSUE ENGINEERING SCAFFOLDS FABRICATED BY RAPID PROTOTYPING

摘要

Cells on glass coverslips were well-spread with a strong yellow signal at the ends of the actin fibers, where they meet the focal adhesions, indicating a large amount of colocalization (Fig. 2A). On the PCL films, cells were elongated and some colocalization was evident, mostly within the cell body (Fig. 2B) and sometimes at the ends of the stress fibers (not pictured). On the unshifted (Fig. 2C) and shifted (Fig. 2D) scaffolds,cells appeared spread and either curved around the polymer struts or very elongated. However, the actin and vinculin stain are rarely colocalized except in isolated cases. No qualitative differences between the two scaffold types were observed. As evident in the images, cells on all substrates contained a large amount of cytoplasmic vinculin, but this did not always translate to focal adhesions. Large focal contacts are normally colocalized with actin stress fibers, while immature focal complexes are not associated with the actin cytoskeleton.