Fig 1: TGF–β and Akt regulates DC and macrophage phenotypes in a context specific way. (A) For all graphs, the individual control (NT, not treated) percentages were set to 1 for each stiffness, based on which the corresponding fold change was calculated. (A) CD206 and (B) CD86 expressions of CD11c+ cells were measured via flow cytometry. (C) CD206 and (D) CD86 expressions of human CD11c+ cells were measured via flow cytometry. (A–D) Akt was inhibited with 1.2 μM Akt Inhibitor IV (Cayman) for 24 h. (E) TGF–β levels were measured via ELISA from supernatant of 3D human cocultures. All experiments were performed with three biological repeats per technical repeat and at least two technical repeats in total. For (A) and (D) all repeats are shown and were used for the statistical analysis (n = 6 per condition). For (B, C, E) one representative technical repeat is shown and three biological repeats per condition were used for the statistical analysis. (A–E) 10 kPa and 20 kPa were stiffened by addition of CaCl2 and soft controls were not stiffened alginate/collagen hydrogels. All p values are shown: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.005; ****p < 0.0001. All error bars are shown as SEM.