Research Article

Zebularine Promotes Hepatic Differentiation of Rabbit Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Interfering with p38 MAPK Signaling

Figure 3

Zebularine promoted protein expression of ALB in BMMSCs and attenuated activation of the p38 signal pathway induced by HGF. (a) The protein expression of ALB increased on day 14 and reached a peak on day 21 in the 0 μM (HGF only) group. Zebularine at 20 μM clearly reinforced the HGF-induced upregulation of ALB protein expression. However, the peak of expression of ALB in both 0 and 20 μM groups was lower than that in primary rabbit hepatocytes. (b) HGF (0 μM group) increased the expression of phosphorylated p38 in cultured BMMSCs. However, addition of zebularine (20 μM group) significantly suppressed p38 pathway activation in the cells stimulated with HGF. Asterisk indicates compared with min 0; dagger indicates compared with HGF (0 μM group).
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