Endothelial cell activation on 3D-matrices derived from PDGF-BB-stimulated fibroblasts is mediated by Snail1

a Binary images representative of the cellular orientation of the BJ-hTERT fibroblasts treated or not with PDGF-BB (above) and directionality histograms (below) calculated with the Image J software which represent the frequency of distribution of cell angles (centered on the 0 ° angle). b Increase in protein expression of extracellular proteins such as fibronectin and Collagen I in PDGF-stimulated fibroblasts derived from ECM. c Increase of ECM thickness, determined by confocal microscopy, in those ECMs derived from PDGF-stimulated fibroblasts. d Increase in protein and organization of extracellular proteins such as fibronectin and Collagen I in PDGF-stimulated fibroblasts derived from ECM. Under the image its represented the directionality histograms calculated with the Image J software which represent the frequency of distribution of protein fibers angles (centered on the 0 ° angle). e, f Endothelial cell activation was observed by formation of capillary-like structures on matrices derived from PDGF-stimulated fibroblasts (e) and increased expression of angiogenesis-related markers (f). g Increase expression of β1 and β3 integrins subunits in HUVECs from PDGF-derived matrices. *p value？<？0,05; ***p value？<？0,001. All results are derived from 2–4 independent experiments, each performed in duplicat