Preconditioning of Rat Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells with Toll-Like Receptor Agonists

Figure 7

Analysis of the effect of LPS preconditioning on the proregenerative ability of rBM-MSCs. (a–c) Photomontages showing the regenerated portions of the sciatic nerve that were inside the polyethylene tubes 4 weeks after transection. Axons were stained with TuJ1 antibodies (red). In the Vehicle group, only the Matrigel® solution was injected into the tube, while in the MSC and LPS-MSC groups, rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (rBM-MSCs) or lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) preconditioned rBM-MSCs, respectively, were suspended in the Matrigel® solution and then injected into the tube immediately after sciatic nerve transection and tubulization. Scale bar: 200 μm. (d–g) Quantitative analysis of nerve thickness, cell density, and number of TuJ1-positive axons (in the proximal and distal nerve segments) in each condition ( rats per group; rBM-MSCs from only 1 animal were used in this experiment to reduce donor-related variability). Data are shown as individual values, median, and interquartile range. ; Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparisons test.

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