Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Repair Necrotic Pancreatic Tissue and Promote Angiogenesis by Secreting Cellular Growth Factors Involved in the SDF-1α/CXCR4 Axis in Rats

Figure 4

Prussian blue staining was performed for detecting the SPION-labeled BMSCs in pancreatic and lung tissues. (a) The Prussian blue staining of pancreatic tissue indicates that the cells were stained blue (as indicated by black arrows), gradually increased, and peaked on postoperative days 5–7, when the formation of tubular complexes was also maximal (as indicated by red arrows). However, the migration was partly inhibited and the trend was not obviously investigated in anti-CXCR4 group. (b) The lung tissues were stained by Prussian blue and the blue particles (as indicated by black arrows) were gradually decreasing in both BMSCs and anti-CXCR4 groups. (c) The blue particles in lung, pancreas, liver, spleen, and small intestine were counted and analyzed between BMSCs and anti-CXCR4 groups. The result showed that the number of blue particles of pancreas in BMSCs group was significantly more than in anti-CXCR4 group at postoperative days 1, 3, 5, and 7. Data are expressed as mean ± SD ( and for BMSCs versus anti-CXCR4 at each corresponding time point).