Nuclear phenotypes of tenocytes obtained from primary cultures of rat tendon explants

The dataset identifies the nuclear phenotypes of tenocytes obtained from primary cultures of rat tendon explants, looking for changes in the global chromatin supraorganization associated to experimental procedures and the cell migration phenomenon. Rat calcaneal tendons isolated from male Wistar rats, and cultivated on different surfaces were used to obtain primary cultures. Cells that migrated from the tendon explant and adhered to the culture surface were employed for establishing the primary culture. In the third culture passage, an aliquot at a concentration of 2.5.10³ cells.mL-¹ was removed and cultivated in 24-well culture plates for 72 h. Thereon, the tenocytes were fixed in an ethanol-acetic acid mixture (3:1, v/v), subjected to the Feulgen reaction and image analysis for characterization of their nuclear phenotypes. These phenotypes were evaluated using parameters obtained in an Olympus microscope model BX51 (Olympus America Center). Images were captured and analyzed using Image-Pro Plus v.6.3 software for Windows™, Media Cybernetics, Inc. (Silver Spring, MD, USA). The software allowed us obtaining nuclear area values, gray averages converted into absorbances (OD), Feret ratio, integrated optical density (IOD) which corresponds to Feulgen-DNA values in arbitrary units, margination, which corresponds to the relative distribution of the IOD in the object, with a value of 0.33 indicating a homogeneous object, and fractal dimension, which informs on the contour of the nucleus.