Fig. 3

SA-CNTs promote EMT in outgrowing epicardial cells. a Representative confocal images indicating that SA-CNTs (mid) and SA-CNTs plus external electrical stimulation (E-SA-CNTs, right) increased the expression of EMT marker α-SMA (red) compared with control (left) after 6 day of culture by immunofluorescent staining of the central cells of the epicardial outgrowth. b mRNA expression of EMT marker α-SMA, Vimentin, sm-MHC and EMT inducer TGF-β1 after 6 day of culture in SA-CNTs and E-SA-CNTs groups. n = 6 for each group from 4 independent experiments. Tests for trends (p for trend) was calculated with Logistic regression. c Representative confocal images indicating that epicardial cells grown out from heart explant placed on SA-CNTs at 6 day of culture exhibited an enhanced migration indicated by greater separation of nuclei and increased presence of lamellipodia. d Quantitation of cell separation (indicated by nuclei distance) of epicardial cells grown out from heart explant on control and SA-CNTs after 6 day of culture. n = 5 for control sample and n = 5 for SA-CNTs from 5 independent experiments. *p < 0.05