Histone Arginine Methylation-Mediated Epigenetic Regulation of Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 Controls the Senescence of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Figure 4

Inhibition of CARM1 expression in hBM-MSCs induced cellular senescence and DDR2 downregulation. (a) Early-passage hBM-MSCs treated for four days with siRNA targeted against CARM1 exhibited reduced clone number and morphological changes characteristic of late-passage senescent cells. (b) After 1 week of in vitro culture, the percentage of cells positive for the senescence marker β-Gal increased significantly. (c) qPCR and Western blot analyses confirmed that CARM1 mRNA and protein levels were significantly reduced in these cells following siRNA administration. (d) The mRNA level of p16 was also markedly increased in siRNA-transfected cells, while the mRNA levels of TERT and DDR2 were significantly decreased. Bars represent the standard error of the from three repeats. Statistical significance was determined by ANOVA and Student’s -test. , .

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