The role of culture stiffness in myofibroblast differentiation

I started this project to determine the role of tissue stiffness in the differentiation of myofibroblast precursors (in this case, monocytes) into myofibroblasts. This project was premised on the observation that myofibroblast precursors in suspension do not respond to pro-fibrotic factors, nor do myofibroblast precursors cultured (in 2D or 3D) on soft surfaces.The data presented here are a comparison of donor matched monocytes purified from PBMC, and cultured on a soft surface (1 kPa) vs a stiffer surface (12 kPa).