Research Article

Type III Transforming Growth Factor-β Receptor RNA Interference Enhances Transforming Growth Factor β3-Induced Chondrogenesis Signaling in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Figure 3

TβRIII RNAi enhanced TGF-β3-induced chondrogenic differentiation of hMSCs. SiNC- or SiTβRIII-infected cells were cultured in control medium (C-SiNC group; C-SiTβRIII group) or chondrogenic medium containing TGF-β3 (T-SiNC group; T-SiTβRIII group) for 14 days. (a) Upper panels show glycosaminoglycan (GAG) expression by Alcian blue staining; lower panels show COL II expression by immunohistochemistry. Scale bar = 100 μm. (b) GAG content was quantitatively analyzed and normalized by DNA content. (c) Real-time PCR analysis of COL2A1 and SOX9 mRNA levels in hMSCs from different groups. Error bars represent the means ± SD, . versus C-SiNC group; versus T-SiNC group.
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