Figure 1: Gastric cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and paired normal fibroblasts (NFs). (A) Representative morphology of the CAF cells (a: CAF02) and paired NF cells (b: NF02). The morphology of CAF cells in gastric cancer is quite similar to the paired NF cells, i.e., polarized spindle shape, clear boundary, good stereoscopic effects and high refractive index, with a few cells showing triangle and/or polygon in shape. Scale bars: 100 μm. (B) Real-time PCR analysis for α-SMA mRNA expression in the isolated CAF cells and paired NF cells from 5 specimens. The results indicated that in all 5 gastric tumors, the CAF cells showed 1.7- to 3.0-fold increase of α-SMA mRNA expression comparing to the paired NF cells. ***, p<0.001, relative to the paired NF cells.