Fig. 3

Substance P (SP) promotes collagen expression during induced keratocyte differentiation. Keratocyte differentiation medium was used to differentiate PDLSCs towards keratocytes for 7 and 14 days, with (SP) or without (Ctrl) substance P. a Gene expression was evaluated by qPCR. Representative results are shown from PDLSCs derived from three different individuals. Levels at day (d)0 were set as 1. b Western blot was carried out to compare the collagen expression between control and SP-treated group. No bands of COL III with predicted size were found in our blots. c Gene expression of MMPs was evaluated by qPCR. Levels of the control group were set as 1. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001. N.S. not significant