Fig. 3
Thrombomodulin is involved in VSMCs migration. a HASMCs infected with a lentivirus encoding luciferase (shLuc) or TM (shTM) shRNA were cultured in regular medium. Cell migration was analyzed by a wound-healing assay. Each monolayer was scratched, incubated for 24 h, and followed by image acquisition. The open area (scratch) was quantified with ImageJ software from 5 different experiments and expressed as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 compared with shLuc. b A7r5 cells transfected with pEGFP, pEGFP-TM or pEGFP-TMS490, 492A were cultured for 36 h and serum-starved for 24 h. Wound healing assay was performed under PDGF-BB treatment for 24 h. Cell motility was quantified from 4 independent experiments and expressed as mean ± SEM. c A7r5 cells transfected with pEGFP, pEGFP-TM, pEGFP-TMΔL or pEGFP-TMS490, 492A underwent invasion assay in transwells without coating or coated with type I collagen or fibronectin. Cells seeded in the upper chamber were incubated for 16 h, those attached to the lower surface of the membrane were fixed, stained with DAPI, and GFP-expressing cells counted. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, compared with the GFP-expressing group; #P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01, ###P < 0.001, compared with the TM-GFP-expressing group