Figure 4

Hair follicle stem cell morphology, adherence and proliferation on scaffolds. (a), (b), (c) After 1 day of culture, no significant difference was observed between all groups with respect to cell morphology, with few adherent cells, the majority being spherical. (d), (e), (f) After 7 days of culture, all cells were firmly adhered to the scaffold and were growing three-dimensionally along the scaffold. (g) After transfection of VEGF165, hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) adhered efficiently to the scaffold wall. There was no significant difference in proliferative capacity with the control group. (a), (d) HFSCs after VEGF165 transfection (Group A). (b), (e) Control group with empty support (Group B). (c), (f) Control group (Group C). HFSCs/pLV-VEGF165-IRES-EGFP, HFSCs transduced with VEGF165 seeded on Gel-C6S-HA scaffolds; HFSCs/pLV-IRES-EGFP, HFSCs transduced with empty vector seeded on Gel-C6S-HA scaffolds: HFSCs, HFSCs seeded on Gel-C6S-HA scaffolds. EGFP, enhanced green fluorescent protein; Gel-C6S-HA, gelatin–chondroitin-6-sulfate–hyaluronic acid; IRES, internal ribosome entry site; OD, optical density; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.