Figure 4From: Systemic vasculopathy with altered vasoreactivity in a transgenic mouse model of sclerodermaVascular smooth muscle cells from Tβ RIIΔk-fib mice show enhanced remodeling of floating type I collagen gel lattices. vSMCs from transgenic animals promoted more contraction of free-floating collagen lattices, resulting in gels of reduced diameter and weight when compared with wild-type. Induction by exogenous TGF-β1 resulted in further contraction by wild-type cells, but cells from transgenic mice were refractory to further induction. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM;*P < 0.05, **P < 0.001, and are representative of three independent experiments examining three littermates for each condition.Back to article page