Research Article

Physiological Hypoxia Enhances Stemness Preservation, Proliferation, and Bidifferentiation of Induced Hepatic Stem Cells

Figure 1

The expression of hepatic stem cell markers of iHepSCs under hypoxia environment. (a) Morphology of iHepSCs under the bright field in each group. (b) Immunofluorescence staining: expression of CK19, Sox9, EpCAM, and Lgr5 of iHepSCs cultured in normoxia and physiological hypoxia environments; nuclei counterstained with Hoechst 33342. (c) Western blot assay and quantitative analysis: expression of CK19, Sox9, EpCAM, and Lgr5 in iHepSCs under normoxia and hypoxia for 6, 24, 72, and 120 h, respectively. (d) Colony-forming units and quantitative analysis in each group. Statistical significance: , , and . Scale bars = 100 μm.
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