Fig. 4.

Apoptotic effects of H₂O₂, serum deprivation (SD) and hypoxia on the MSCs. a Detection of apoptosis using Annexin-V. After treatment of the cells with 100 μM H₂O₂, 6 h of hypoxia or 12 h of serum depriviation, the number of apoptotic cells of those infected with the empty virus (V) was higher than those infected with the Ad-HO-1virus. b Detection of apoptotic activity using caspase-3 assay kit. Under the conditions described above, the lower level of the activated caspase 3 was observed in MSCs-HO-1 cells compared to the control cells (mean ± SD of three independent experiments; ***p < 0.001)