Fig. 5: Cxcl12-creER⁺ BMSCs respond to bone marrow ablation-induced osteogenesis.

a–c Experimental schemes and procedures of bone marrow ablation model. a Right femurs were operated, while left femurs were unoperated and used as internal control. (b, i–vi): Step-by-step demonstration of surgical procedures. c Timeline for tamoxifen injection, ablation surgery and analysis. d–j Col1(2.3 kb)-GFP; Cxcl12-creER; R26R^tdTomato distal femur bone marrow (pulsed at 7 days before surgery) with growth plates on top. Three days (d), 7 days (e), and 14 days after surgery (f, h). h Ablated area, boxed area in (f). Scale bar: 50 µm. g contralateral control side. Gray: DIC. Scale bar: 500 µm. n = 4 (Day 3), n = 3 (Day 7), n = 5 (Day 14), n = 3 (Conrol) mice. i Flow cytometry analysis of CD45/Ter119/CD31^neg bone marrow cells. Lower panels: fold change of total tdTomato⁺ cells (left) or Col1-GFP⁺tdTomato⁺cells (right) in ablated side over contralateral control side. Scale bar: 20 µm. n = 6 mice. **p < 0.01, two-tailed, Mann–Whitney’s U test. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. j Regenerated cartilaginous tissue adjacent to growth plate. Gray: DIC. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.