Journal: PLoS ONE

Article Title: MicroRNA-30b controls endothelial cell capillary morphogenesis through regulation of transforming growth factor beta 2

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185619

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) HUVECs were transfected with either control mimic (con) or miR-30b mimic (30b) and levels of TGFβ1 and TGFβ2 mRNA were assessed by qRT-PCR. Expression levels relative to control mimic transfected cells and normalized to β-actin expression are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 2). Overexpression of miR-30b significantly increases TGFβ2 expression. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 as determined by unpaired Student’s t -test. (B) Cells were transfected with 20 nM of either control mimic (control) or miR-30b mimic (miR-30b) and protein lysates were collected after 48 hours for assessment of TGFβ2 protein levels by western blot. β-actin was used as endogenous control. (C) ELISAs for TGFβ1 and TGFβ2 were performed with 24 hour conditioned supernates from HUVECs transfected with 20 nM of either control or miR-30b mimic. Data represents the mean ± SEM (n = 2). Overexpression of miR-30b significantly increases TGFβ2 secretion into cell culture supernate. * P = 0.044 as determined by unpaired Student’s t -test. (D) HUVECs were transfected with 20 nM of either control mimic (control) or miR-30b mimic (miR-30b) and protein lysates were collected after 48 hours for assessment of Smad2 phosphorylation by western blot.

Article Snippet: Primary antibodies used were: TGFβ2 (V, SC-90), ATF-2 (C-19, SC-187), and phospho-ATF-2 (F-1, SC-8398) from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA), phospho-Smad2 (S465/467) from Cell Signaling Technology (3101; Danvers, MA), Smad2 from Invitrogen (511300; Carlsbad, CA), β-Actin (clone AC-74) from Sigma-Aldrich (A5316; St. Louis, MO), anti-TGFβ2 neutralizing antibody (AB-12-NA) and Normal Rabbit IgG (AB-105-C) from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN).

Techniques: Transfection, Control, Quantitative RT-PCR, Expressing, Over Expression, Western Blot, Cell Culture, Phospho-proteomics

Journal: PLoS ONE

Article Title: MicroRNA-30b controls endothelial cell capillary morphogenesis through regulation of transforming growth factor beta 2

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185619

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) JDP2 mRNA expression was assessed in HUVECs transfected with miR-30b mimic (20 nM) as compared to control by qRT-PCR. Data represents the mean ± SEM (n = 3) normalized to β-actin as endogenous control. * P = 0.016 as determined by unpaired Student’s t -test. (B) HUVEC were transfected with 50 nM of either control siRNA or ATF2 siRNA 1 or 2 and RNA was isolated at 48 hours post transfection. Levels of ATF2 and TGFβ2 mRNA were assessed by qRT-PCR with β-actin as endogenous control. Data presented is mean ± SEM (n = 2). Statistically significant decreases in ATF2 and TGFβ2 expression were seen in ATF2 siRNA treated cells as compared to control siRNA treated cells. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001 as determined by unpaired Student’s t -tests for each ATF2 siRNA compared to control siRNA. (C) Cells transfected with 5 nM of either control siRNA or ATF2 siRNA 1 were seeded onto growth factor reduced BME and the formation of capillary-like cord structures and number of loops was assessed after 24 hours. (D) A statistically significant increase in cord formation was observed in cells depleted of ATF2 through siRNA. Data represents the mean ± SEM (n = 2). * P = 0.041 as determined by unpaired Student’s t -test. (E) HUVECs were co-transfected with miRNA mimic (20 nM) and ATF2 siRNA 1 or 2 (50 nM) in the combinations displayed and cell lysates were collected at 48 hours post transfection and assessed for TGFβ2 mRNA expression. Data presented is mean ± SEM (n = 2). * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001 as determined by ANOVA with post hoc analysis. (F) Cells were transfected as in (E) using miRNA mimic (20 nM) and ATF2 siRNA 1 (5 nM) and serum starved overnight in MCDB 131 with 0.5% FBS prior to protein expression analysis by western blot. Data is representative of expression levels observed in two independently performed experiments.

Article Snippet: Primary antibodies used were: TGFβ2 (V, SC-90), ATF-2 (C-19, SC-187), and phospho-ATF-2 (F-1, SC-8398) from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA), phospho-Smad2 (S465/467) from Cell Signaling Technology (3101; Danvers, MA), Smad2 from Invitrogen (511300; Carlsbad, CA), β-Actin (clone AC-74) from Sigma-Aldrich (A5316; St. Louis, MO), anti-TGFβ2 neutralizing antibody (AB-12-NA) and Normal Rabbit IgG (AB-105-C) from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN).

Techniques: Expressing, Transfection, Control, Quantitative RT-PCR, Isolation, Western Blot

Journal: PLoS ONE

Article Title: MicroRNA-30b controls endothelial cell capillary morphogenesis through regulation of transforming growth factor beta 2

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185619

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) HUVECs were serum starved overnight in MCDB 131 with 0.5% FBS and stimulated with VEGF (50 ng/ml) in the presence or absence of Avastin (1 μg/ml) for 24 hours. Data represents the mean ± SEM (n = 2) for expression of TGFβ1 and TGFβ2 assessed by qRT-PCR relative to β-actin endogenous control. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001 as determined by ANOVA. (B) HUVECs were treated with 5 ng/ml of TGFβ2 for 3 days prior to seeding onto growth factor reduced BME for assessment of capillary-like cord formation after 24 hours. (C) A significant decrease in cord formation is observed in the TGFβ2 treated group. Data represents the mean ± SEM (n = 2). ** P = 0.0072 as determined by unpaired Student’s t -test. (D) HUVECs transfected with 1 nM control or miR-30b mimic were treated 4 hours post transfection with 0.8 μg/ml anti-TGFβ2 neutralizing antibody or rabbit IgG. Media was refreshed after 24 hours, again with rabbit IgG or anti-TGFβ2 antibody and cells were seeded onto growth factor reduced BME 24 hours later (ie. 48 hours post transfection) in media containing rabbit IgG or anti-TGFβ2 antibody. (E) Data represents the mean ± SEM (n = 3) of the number of capillary-like cord structures or number of loops formed after 24 hours on BME. * P < 0.05, ns denotes not significant as determined by ANOVA with post hoc analysis.

Article Snippet: Primary antibodies used were: TGFβ2 (V, SC-90), ATF-2 (C-19, SC-187), and phospho-ATF-2 (F-1, SC-8398) from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA), phospho-Smad2 (S465/467) from Cell Signaling Technology (3101; Danvers, MA), Smad2 from Invitrogen (511300; Carlsbad, CA), β-Actin (clone AC-74) from Sigma-Aldrich (A5316; St. Louis, MO), anti-TGFβ2 neutralizing antibody (AB-12-NA) and Normal Rabbit IgG (AB-105-C) from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN).

Techniques: Expressing, Quantitative RT-PCR, Control, Transfection

Journal: Advanced Science

Article Title: Combinatorial Microgels for 3D ECM Screening and Heterogeneous Microenvironmental Culture of Primary Human Hepatic Stellate Cells

doi: 10.1002/advs.202303128

Figure Lengend Snippet: a) Representative maximum intensity projection of confocal images of HSCs cultured with 8C4 and 8FN scaffolds, the lowest and highest conditions for PDGFRβ expression. Light blue: DAPI. Purple: DiD membrane stain. Green: anti‐PDGFRβ. Scale bar: 100 µm. b) Box and whisker plots of the anti‐PDGFRβ fluorescence intensity per nucleus normalized to the average of all conditions per experimental replicate. n = 9 from three experimental replicates. c) Representative maximum intensity projection of confocal images of HSCs cultured with 8C1 and 8C4 scaffolds, the lowest and highest conditions for collagen I expression. Light blue: DAPI. Purple: DiD membrane stain. Yellow: anti‐collagen I. Scale bar: 100 µm. d) Box and whisker plots of the anticollagen I fluorescence intensity per nucleus normalized to the average of all conditions per experimental replicate. n = 9 from three experimental replicates. Two‐way interaction ANOVA. * p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01 *** p < 0.001 where * means between conditions and ^ means versus eight‐arm 8% counterpart.

Article Snippet: Microwells had their media removed and were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde (RT15710, Electron Microscopy Sciences) in PBS for 20 min. Microwells were then washed twice with PBS and permeabilized with 0.5% Triton X‐100 (X100, MilliporeSigma) in PBS for 15 min. Microwells were washed once with PBS and blocked with 1% w/v bovine serum albumin (BSA, A2153, MiliporeSigma) in 0.1% Triton X‐100 in PBS for 1 h. Microwells were washed once with PBS and stained for 24 h with 2 μg mL −1 of anti‐human procollagen I alpha one antibody (AF6220, R&D Systems) and 0.848 μg mL −1 anti‐LOX antibody (ab174316, abcam) or 4 μg mL −1 anti‐human PDGFR beta antibody (AF385, R&D Systems) and 10 μg mL −1 anti‐human/mouse/rat alpha‐smooth muscle actin antibody (MAB1420, abcam) in 0.1% BSA and 0.1% Triton X‐100 in PBS for 24 h in a gentle shaker.

Techniques: Cell Culture, Expressing, Membrane, Staining, Whisker Assay, Fluorescence