Fig. 3: Expression of TGF-β1 and BMP7 is differentially regulated in aged gingiva.

a Immunofluorescence staining of maxilla cross sections of young and aged B6 mice with mAbs directed against TGF-β1 (red), BMP7 (green), and with DAPI (blue). Representative of three independent experiments. Scale bar 50 μm. b Western blot analysis showing the presence of TGF-β1 and BMP7 in lysates of total gingival epithelial or lamina propria cells, respectively, of young and aged mice. Arrows depict the location of the precursor vs mature dimer form of each protein. ACTIN was used as a control protein. Graph shows the expression intensity of the precursor and mature dimmer forms of TGF-β1 and BMP7, the values were normalized to ACTIN and are the mean ± SEM. Data were collected from four independent experiments with 2–4 mice/group. c Western blot analysis demonstrates the presence of TGF-β1 and BMP7 in epidermis lysates of young and aged mice, GAPDH was used as a control protein. Graph shows the expression intensity of the precursor and mature dimmer forms of TGF-β1 and BMP7, the values were normalized to GAPDH and are the mean ± SEM. Data were collected from two independent experiments with 4 mice/group. d Relative expression of Tgfb1 and Bmp7 genes in young and aged gingiva or epidermis was quantified by RT-PCR. Graphs present the transcript levels normalized to control group depicted as the mean values + SEM (n = 5). Representative data of four independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (unpaired Student’s t test) compared with young samples.