Figure 4

Differentiation ability and lack of infiltration of CD73⁺ rMSCs. (a) Capacity of CD73-MSCs to differentiate into adipocytes, chondrocytes, and osteoblasts. Scale bar, 100 µm. (b) Double fluorescence staining to label the chondrogenic marker aggrecan (green) and the macrophage marker Iba1 (red) (top). Scale bar, 100 µm. Histological sections of cell pellets transplanted after 2 weeks. The pellets stained with safranin O (low). Scale bar, 100 µm. (c) Quantitative analysis of the mRNA expression of Cxcl12, Ccl2, Il10, and Tgf b1 in freshly isolated MSCs (CD73⁺ and CD73⁻ cells). The mRNA expression of each gene was normalized to that of Hprt. The gene expression in CD73⁻CD45⁻CD31⁻ cells was set as 1.0.