Fig. 1

Identification of rat gastric smooth muscle cells (GSMC). a Freshly isolated GSMC were of variable length and had a spindle-shaped form by phase contrast microscopy. Cells were viewed under a 20× objective of an inverted Nikon TMS-f microscope, and the image was captured with a Canon digital camera. Average length of resting SMC isolated from male and female rats was 113.53 ± 4 and 114.39 ± 3  µm, respectively. b Immunohistochemical staining of paraffin-embedded rat smooth muscle using anti-h1-calponin antibody at 1/100 dilution