Fig 1: PDGF-BB induced the formation of the CAF phenotype in hOMF. (A) The cells were treated with PDGF-BB in a dose-dependent manner (10, 20, 30 ng/ml) in 10% fetal bovine serum for 72 h for three passages. The cells were subjected to western blot analysis with antibodies against CAF markers a-SMA, FAP-a, PDGFR-ß and p-PDGFR-ß. ß-tubulin served as a loading control and sample loading was 20 µg. (B) Fluorescence microscopy of hOMF stained with a-SMA, FAP-a and PDGFR-ß (probed with a primary and a secondary antibody). Cells were counterstained with DAPI. Data were expressed as means ± SEM (n=3). *P<0.05 vs. hOMF, #P<0.05 vs. 10 ng/ml PDGF-BB. PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; CAF, cancer-associated fibroblast; hOMF, human oral mucosa (p3) 500K fibroblast; a-SMA, a-smooth muscle actin; FAP-a, fibroblast activation protein-a; PDGFR-ß, platelet-derived growth factor receptor-ß; p, phosphorylated.