Fig. 6

Association of FAK / ERK signaling pathways to MSC morphology on electrospun fiber sheets. a Phalloidin staining of F-actin (red) and nuclei with DAPI (blue) in MSCs treated with or without FAK inhibitor (PF573228). Scale bar = 50 μm. b Western blot and densitometric analysis of phosphorylated FAK (p-FAK) and ERK (p-ERK) in MSCs cultured on aligned and random fibers in the absence or presence of FAK inhibitor (20 μM; PF573228) or ERK inhibitor (70 μM; PD98059) for 24 h. Densitometric analysis of p-FAK and p-ERK were normalized to their respective non-phosphorylated counterpart. All data represent mean ± SD, n = 6, from 3 independent experiments. ŧ denotes p < 0.05 compared to aligned fibers; † denotes p < 0.05 compared to MSCs without PD98059 treatment; # denotes p < 0.05 compared to MSCs without PF573228 treatment