Figure 5

Chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 2 (CCR2) ligand induces differentiation of human blood fibrocytes. Human blood fibrocytes were stimulated with human chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (hCCL2) or transforming growth factor (TGF)β and grown for 4 days before α-smooth muscle actin levels were analyzed. The optical density (OD) reading is the level of α-smooth muscle actin, which relates to the amount of fibrocyte differentiation into myofibroblasts. *P < 0.05, significantly different compared with untreated fibrocytes. ***P < 0.005, significantly different compared with untreated fibrocytes. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 3 replicates per treatment group) (representative from three separate experiments).