Fig. 7. Redistribution of _vß₃ occurs in resorbing human OCs pre-incubated with HGF. Primary human OCs, incubated with vehicle alone (A-C) or HGF (5 ng/ml) (D-F) were plated onto hydroxyapatite-coated coverslips (BD BioCoat^TM Osteologic^TM) and examined by immunofluorescence, followed by staining with AP5 (A,D) and FITC phalloidin (B,E). Without exogenous growth factors, the activated _vß₃ is distributed with a punctuate pattern on the cell surface (A,B). A pseudocolar merged image (C) from _vß₃ staining in red (A) and actin in green (B) fails to reveal colocalization of the integrin with the actin ring. HGF treatment induces a change of conformation of _vß₃ that is found mostly in fillopodia-like extensions (D). The pseudocolor merged image (F) reveals _vß₃ (red) mainly localized in small protrusions at the cell periphery, external to the actin ring (green) in the sealing zone (single arrow). A partial colocalization between the integrin and the actin ring is seen in yellow (double arrows). Bar, 5 µm.

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