Research Article

Hepatocyte Growth Factor Effects on Mesenchymal Stem Cells Derived from Human Arteries: A Novel Strategy to Accelerate Vascular Ulcer Wound Healing

Figure 2

Proliferative effect of HGF/SF on hVW-MSCs. (a) In vitro proliferation of hVW-MSCs exposed to HGF/SF assessed by Alamar Blue fluorescence assay up to 7 days. From day 1 to day 3, the fluorescence intensity was increased in HGF/SF-treated hVW-MSCs including untreated cells (red) while no difference was seen between hVW-MSCs stimulated by HGF/SF and untreated cells at 3 and 7 days. (b) Representative images of cycling cells expressing Ki-67 protein after 6 and 24 hrs of incubation with HGF/SF, compared to controls (hVW-MSCs). Ki-67 positive cells (green) and DAPI (nuclei in blue). After 6 hrs, the HGF/SF stimulation induced a slight increase of Ki-67 positive hVW-MSCs percentage on total DAPI cells; after 24 hrs of HGF/SF exposure, the percentage of Ki-67 positive cells is approximately reduced of the 15% in all the experimental conditions. Scale bars = 50 μm. (c) Images and quantitative analysis of hVW-MSCs cultured with PHA-665752 and then exposed to HGF/SF. c-Met inhibitor before HGF/SF incubation revealed almost similar Ki-67 percentage reduced in comparison to control cells. Scale bars = 50 μm. (b)-(c) , , value < 0.05, and one-way ANOVA test followed by Bonferroni posttest.
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