Figure 3: Histological analysis of the beneficial effects of MSCs on ketamine-induced bladder injuries.

(a) The infiltrated mast-cells in bladder tissues were stained with Toluidine blue (red arrows in the left panels) and counted (right panel). The upper and lower images are at ×100 (scale bar = 400 μm) and ×200 (scale bar = 200 μm) magnification, respectively. (b) The apoptotic cells (green) in the bladder sections were stained with a TUNEL assay (left panel) and quantified (right panel). The region enriched in apoptotic cells (box in upper image; magnification ×100, scale bar = 400 μm) is shown in the lower panel at higher magnification (×200, scale bar = 200 μm). (c) Fibrosis in the bladder sections was stained with Masson’s trichrome stain (left panels). The blue color indicates fibrosis. The upper and lower images are at ×40 (scale bar = 1 mm) and ×100 (scale bar = 400 μm) magnification, respectively. Fibrosis was quantified by digital image analysis (lower panel). KC = ketamine; KC+MSC = ketamine-injected rats treated with MSC. All quantitative data were normalized to those of the sham group and are presented as dot plot with the mean ± SEM. n = 7, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 compared with the KC group with Bonferroni post-test.