Fig 4.

The survival and distribution of implanted MSCs were observed by confocal laser scanning microscope after tissue-engineered grafts fabricated by labelled MSCs and DBM were transplanted into the EXP (A and D) and CON (B and E) groups. An image scanned from normal bone tissue was used as a control (C and F). At 2 weeks post-operation, most implanted MSCs stayed around the DBM scaffold and a few migrated into the proximal tissue of the host (A and B). At 4 weeks (D and E) post-operation, the implanted MSCs distributed almost evenly along the newly formed bone, but few were observed in the host. Scale bar: A-C, 50 µm; D-F, 100 µm.