Characterization and modeling of cell activation upon TGF-β1 stimulation in a 3-D culture system

myofibroblasts;transforming growth factor-beta1;alpha-smooth muscle actin;diffusion;confocal microscopy imaging;immunofluorescence staining

Xu, Jing ; Insana ; Michael F.

关键词: myofibroblasts;    transforming growth factor-beta1;    alpha-smooth muscle actin;    diffusion;    confocal microscopy imaging;    immunofluorescence staining;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/16963/3_Xu_Jing.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

In this work, we explored a thick in vitro 3-D cell culture model with layered structure and applied transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1) on the top of the 3-D culture to induce the conversion from normal fibroblasts to myofibroblastsand expression of a marker protein, alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). The cell response with TGF-β1 stimulation was captured with immunofluorescence staining (IF) and confocal microscopy imaging of α-SMA in each cell embedded layer. Our results revealed the spatial-temporal profiles of the conversion from normal fibroblasts to myofibroblasts in 3-D culture upon TGF-β1stimulation. The conversion starting time, speed and saturation plateau are closely related to TGF-β1 concentration. Based on these experimental results, we successfully developed a mathematical model, which incorporates diffusion of growth factors and cell activation responses to describe the dynamic cell response to growth factors across the 3-D culture depth and predict the spatial-temporal profile of the fibroblast conversion within the culture. In summary, we present here a handy experimental and computational tool for researches on tumor signaling pathways, and provide some guidance for studies on diffusion of protein factors or drugs in 3-D tissue environment.