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. 2013 Mar 25;8(3):e58610. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058610

Figure 5. Enhanced activation of endogenous Wnt signaling in FOb and exogenous activation of Wnt signaling in POb cells protects from apoptosis.

Figure 5

(A) Time-course Caspase-3 activity performed on FOb and POb cells undergoing osteogenic differentiation with or without Dkk and sFRP (150 ng/ml of each), as illustrated by histogram this treatment upregulates the apoptotic activity in treated FOb cells (B) The same treatment reduces dramatically mineralization of the extracellular matrix in both cell types. (C) Contrary, treatment with Wnt3a (50 ng/ml) robustly decreases apoptosis in POb cells compared to untreated cells. Wnt3a has a similar effect also on FOb cells. (D) Mineralization of the extracellular matrix detected by Alizarin red staining reveals a significant increase of osteogenesis in treated POb cells. (E) and (F) Immunodetection of active/unphosphorylated β-catenin showing the effective inhibition and/or activation of Wnt signaling upon specific treatments.