Intracellular Calcium Determines the Adipogenic Differentiation Potential of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells via the Wnt5a/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway

Figure 1

Two hUCB-MSC lines obtained from individual neonatal samples were cultured in adipogenic-specific medium. MSCs-H (M-H) and MSCs-L (M-L) were distinguished by high and low potential of adipogenic differentiation, respectively. (a) Adipogenic differentiation was examined by lipid vacuole formation and Oil red O staining (red), as indicated, suggesting no adipogenesis in MSCs-L. Oil red O staining was negative in MSCs-L versus MSCs-H at day 14 of induction. Scale bar = 50 μm. (b) mRNA expression of the adipogenic markers PPARγ and leptin was quantified by qPCR (mean ± SD, , ). The expression levels of these genes were normalized to those of β-actin in control cells, which was defined as 1 (mean ± SD, , ). (c) Protein expression of the adipogenic-specific markers PPARγ and leptin was determined using Western blotting, with β-actin serving as a loading control. Expression levels were normalized to β-actin, with the expression levels in the control defined as 1 (right panel, mean ± SD, , , ). C: control; I: induction.

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