Figure 2

Discontinuous adherens junction (AJ) anchor stress fibres at cell borders. (A) Confluent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in EGM-2 growth medium were stained for actin filaments (F-actin; TRITC-phalloidin) and vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin. Bottom panels are enlargements of red boxed areas from top panel that are enriched in discontinuous AJ. (B) HUVECs were nucleofected with a plasmid encoding actin-cherry and plated at confluence for 24 h to 48 h in growth medium. Cells were fixed and stained for VE-cadherin or F-actin. Arrowheads indicate discontinuous AJ.