Fig. 1

Mechanical stretching increases the cell viability and Ca²⁺ influx in MscL-G22S-expressing SCs. A-C. Expression of MscL-G22S in cultured SCs (“MscL”) transfected with a lentiviral vector encoding the mCherry and MscL-G22S was detected by immunofluorescence, qRT-PCR and western blot. SCs transfected with negative-vector control (NC) and those without transfection (Blank) were used as the controls. For the western blot, detection of MscL-G22S is visualized by IgG antibodies against the mCherry. D. The SCs with or without MscL-G22S expression were mechanically stretched using a Flexcell Tension system. E. CCK-8 assay showed that MscL-G22S activated by mechanical stretching significantly increased the viability of SCs. F-G. Quantitative analysis and representative fluorescence images of intracellular Ca²⁺ stained using Fluo-4 AM at indicated time points before and after mechanical stretching. Scale bars = 20 μm. NC, negative control; MscL, MscL-G22S-expressing SCs; NC-stretch, negative control with mechanical stretching; MscL-stretch, MscL-G22S-expressing SCs with mechanical stretching. ns, not significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001