Fig. 5.

Knockout of Plxnb2 accelerates SSPC senescence and dysfunction. a Feature plots showing the expression distribution of the plexin family on Day 7. Expression levels for each cell are color-coded and overlaid onto the UMAP plot. b–d Violin plots demonstrating that Plxnb2⁺ SSPCs positively correlate with gene sets for stemness. e–h Violin plots demonstrating that Plxnb2^- SSPCs positively correlate with INK family genes. i, j QPCR analysis of senescence marker and SASP factor gene expression in SSPCs (n = 3–4). p16 and Il1 by Welch’s t test. k Western blotting analysis of p16, p21 and PLXNB2 protein expression in siRNA-NC- or siRNA-Plxnb2-transfected SSPCs. l SA-β-Gal staining of siRNA-NC- or siRNA-Plxnb2-transfected SSPCs. Scale bar indicates 100 μm. m RT‒PCR analysis of chondrogenesis marker gene expression in SSPCs (n = 4). n RT‒PCR analysis of osteogenic marker gene expression in SSPCs (n = 4). Bglap by Welch’s t test. Data are presented as the means ± SDs. Unpaired t test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 and ns indicates no significant difference