Organotypic Cultures of Intervertebral Disc Cells: Responses to Growth Factors and Signaling Pathways Involved

Figure 2

Regulation of PDGF-stimulated DNA synthesis by CSA. Bovine NP (a) and AF (b) cells were cultured in collagen gels in the presence of the indicated concentrations of CSA and stimulated with PDGF (10 ng/mL) along with tritiated thymidine for 24 hours. Thymidine incorporation was assessed as described in Section 2. Values represent mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. Asterisks () indicate statistically significant differences compared to control (). In (c) monolayer cultures of bovine NP cells were stimulated with PDGF (10 ng/mL) in the presence or absence of 250 μg/mL CSA along with BrdU; incorporation of the latter was assessed as described in Section 2. Images were captured from representative fields with the FITC-filter and superimposed on images captured with the DAPI-filter.

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