During gelation the temperature was held constant at 25uC. Because temperature of polymerization has been shown to affect the storage modulus of polyacrylamide gels, the temperature during mechanical characterization closely followed the temperature during gel synthesis. Once gelation was complete, the viscoelastic properties of the gel were tested at 37uC to better simulate the environment that cells experience. Frequency and stress sweeps were performed to determine the linear viscoelastic range of the system. Frequency sweeps occurred at 37uC following a ten minute equilibration. Using an oscillatory stress of 10 Pa, frequency was varied from 0.01 to 100 Hz, measuring 10 points per decade. Stress sweeps occurred at 37uC. Using a frequency of 1 Hz, the oscillatory stress was varied between 0.01 to 100 Pa measuring 10 points per decade. The results obtained were plotted in Origin. Each data point is averaged across 3 independently prepared samples. Human pleural mesothelial cells were obtained from ATCC. Cells were maintained at 37uC with 5% CO2 and were used between 3,5,7-Trihydroxyflavone passages 3 and 12. Three different media formulations were used on the mesothelial cells. Two of the three media formulations were complete media formulations and differed only in their base media. Cells were passaged and grown in Media 199 with Earle��s basic salt solution and 0.75 mM Lglutamine supplemented with 1.25 g/L sodium bicarbonate, 3.3 nM epidermal growth factor, 20 mM HEPES, trace elements 1801747-11-4 mixture B, 10% fetal bovine serum, and 1% penicillin/streptomycin. Cells were seeded for the 10-plex ELISA experiment in Media 199 without phenol red with the same supplements as mentioned above. The third media formulation was a serum free media consisting of Media 199 without phenol red supplemented with 20 mM HEPES, trace elements mixture B, and 1% penicillin/ streptomycin. For all experiments, mesothelial cells were seeded at either 80,000 cells/well or 300,000 cells/well in 12-well tissue culture plates containing the polyacrylamide gel substrates or nothing. Cells were allowed to adhere and grow overnight. The following day, the substrates were transferred to new 12-well plates to ensure that the response from only those cells grown on the polyac
