FoxC1-Induced Vascular Niche Improves Survival and Myocardial Repair of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Infarcted Hearts

Figure 4

FoxC1 overexpression reduces inflammatory/fibrotic factor expression in the niche of the engrafted MSCs. qPCR analysis of the mRNA expression of the inflammatory factors IL-1 (a) and IL-6 (b), anti-inflammatory factors IL-4 (c) and IL-10 (d), and fibrotic factors TGF-β1 (e), MMP2 (f), and MMP9 (g) in the CON IHs, the adFoxC1 IHs, or the siFoxC1 IHs treated with PBS or MSCs for 30 days. (h) Heart tissue lysates were immunoprecipitated with antibodies against these factors. Immunoprecipitates were analyzed by immunoblotting with antibodies against IL-1, IL-6, IL-4, IL-10, TGF-β1, MMP2, and MMP9. GAPDH served as the loading control. MSC transplantation resulted in a significant decrease in the expression levels of these factors, and this reduction was more pronounced in the MSC-treated adFoxC1 IHs. siFoxC1 intervention canceled it. (i, j) Immunofluorescence images depicting loss of representative inflammatory factor IL-6 (i) and fibrotic factor MMP2 (j) after transplantation of MSCs into the adFoxC1 IHs. The nuclei were stained with DAPI and revealed as blue; the cytoplasm was stained as red with anti-IL-6 or MMP2. . All graphical data are the . vs. PBS in the CON IHs, ^† vs. MSCs in the CON IHs, ^‡ vs. PBS in the adFoxc1 group, ^§ vs. MSCs in the adFoxc1 IHs, and ^|| vs. PBS in the siFoxc1 IHs (CON IHs: PBS, , and MSCs, ; adFoxc1: PBS, , and MSCs, ; siFoxC1: PBS , and MSCs, ); Student’s -test.