Fig. 4
Comparison of migratory properties in response to growth factors. a Representative image of crystal violet staining of adult tenocytes with and without the addition of 100 ng/ml IGF-1 grown in 1% serum tenocyte medium. Scale bar = 500 μm. Images shown are representative of three biological repeats of both adult and fetal tenocytes. b Log2FC in cell migration in adult and fetal tenocytes following 24-h exposure to growth factors compared to the control. Error bars represent the s.e.m. of three biological replicates. *p < 0.05 based on Student’s t test. c Log2FC in gene expression in adult and fetal tenocytes following exposure to TGF-β3 compared to the non-exposed control. Error bars represent the s.e.m. of three biological replicates. Student’s t test *p < 0.05. d Boxplots showing the log normalised expression counts of TGF-β receptors 1 and 2 and SMAD2 and SMAD3 in adult and fetal tenocytes cultured in both 2D and 3D. Statistical significance based on an adjusted p value of < 0.01 and a Log2FC of ± 2 (*). e Boxplots showing the log normalised expression counts of TGF-β receptors 1 and 2 and SMAD2 and SMAD3 in adult, fetal and ESC-tenocytes cultured in 3D. Statistical significance based on an adjusted p value of < 0.01 and a Log2FC of ± 2 (*). f Immunofluorescence staining of TGF-β receptors 1 and 2 and SMAD2/3 in adult and fetal tenocytes cultured in 2D. SMAD2/3 is translocated to the nucleus of both adult and fetal tenocytes following 30 min of TGF-β3 exposure. DAPI staining of the nucleus is shown in blue. Scale bar = 40 μm. Images shown are representative of three biological repeats