Exosomes Derived from Human Urine-Derived Stem Cells Inhibit Intervertebral Disc Degeneration by Ameliorating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Figure 4

USCs-exos enhance the activation of UPR and related proteins under stress conditions. The USCs-exos group was treated with USCs-exos (100 μg/ml). (a–g) Protein expression levels of p-PERK, PERK, ATF6, p-IRE1α, IRE1α, XBP1, ATF4, and CHOP as determined by Western blot analysis and calculation of their relative quantities (b–g) using β-actin as an internal reference. (h–j) The transcription levels of XBP1 (h), ATF4 (i), and CHOP (j) as determined by qRT-PCR. The data are expressed as the . Compared to the control group, ; ^#compared to the 48 h group, .

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