Fig. 3

Effect of soluble ECM on MSCs seeded on aligned nanofibers. a MSCs were cultured on aligned PCL nanofibers in one of four medium conditions. b Gene expression analysis on day 14 showed tenogenic and chondrogenic effects due to TGF-β supplementation. tECM supplementation promoted a tenogenic phenotype while cECM upregulated chondrogenic markers and RUNX2. Both TGF-β and cECM increased expression of the hypertrophic marker COL10A1 (p <0.05, n = 9). Statistically significant differences are indicated by overlying horizontal lines. c Immunofluorescence staining of tenomodulin shows increasing intensity in the following order: control < cECM < tECM < TGF-β; Tnmd = green, nuclei = blue. Scale bar = 100 μm. cECM urea-extracted cartilage extracellular matrix, tECM urea-extracted tendon extracellular matrix