Curcumin-Activated Mesenchymal Stem Cells Derived from Human Umbilical Cord and Their Effects on MPTP-Mouse Model of Parkinson’s Disease: A New Biological Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease

Figure 4

TH expressions in the CS of PD mice after cell treatment. (a, b) Immunohistochemistry for TH (10 serial CS sections of five mice from five groups (control , the other groups ), taken at an interval of 4 μm) showed that the numbers of TH-positive cells in the SN and CS of the model and F12 groups were greatly decreased compared with the normal mice () (arrows, ). In the hUC-MSC and hUC-MSCs-CUR groups, TH-positive cells stained darker and the number of cells was obviously increased. Cell arrangement was neat, and axons became longer and denser in the SN and CS. There were significant differences compared with the model and F12 groups (). There was a significant difference between the MSC and MSC-CUR groups () (one-way analysis of variance, Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test, , , ). (c, d) Western blot showed a pattern of TH expression that was consistent with immunohistochemistry.

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