Fig. 3

Effects of S. thermophilus lysate on collagen I production in TGF-β1-activated NHDF and ECM remodeling. A Immunoblotting assay for collagen I was performed on NHDF treated as previously described. Following densitometric analysis, obtained values were normalized vs. GAPDH. Values are expressed as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments performed in duplicate. Images from one representative out of three independent experiments are presented. B Representative immunofluorescence images of NHDF stained with anti-collagen I antibody (green) and with TRITC-phalloidin (red) to reveal F-actin. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue) (magnification 100 x). The images are representative of three independent experiments in duplicate. C Collagen gel retraction assay of NHDF-populated collagen lattices. The gel contraction was digitally photo-documented, and the gel area was measured with ImageJ and normalized to pre-release area (T0). Values of normalized area are expressed as mean ± SEM of two independent experiments in duplicate. D Representative images of collagen gel pre-release (T0) and taken 48 h after treatments are shown. In all cases, the comparative analysis of data has been carried out by using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc Tukey’s test (** P < 0.01 vs. CNTR; *** P < 0.001 vs. CNTR; § P < 0.05, §§ P < 0.01 vs. TGF-β1)