FIG. 5.

Migrated MSCs in the defect area. On the left side, representative histological sections of group SDF-1α, CXCR4(+) MSCs are shown. (A) Shows the unstained bright view of a newly formed bone bridge surrounded by fibrous tissue, fat tissue graft (superior), and bone marrow (inferior). (B) Showing the same view as (A), presents fluorescence imaging. Enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP)-labeled cells are shown in green (migrated MSCs), all 4′ 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) stained nuclei are shown in blue. Most of the migrated MSCs are located in the fibrous tissue and the fat tissue graft. However, some of the migrated MSCs are incorporated in the bone bridge (labeled with red arrows). (C) Shows the H&E overview, which indicates the location of (A, B). The graph on the right side shows the number of eGFP-positive pixels (from migrated MSCs) of the whole defect area. Mean and 95% confidence interval for each group are presented (quantitative analysis). A comparison of all groups showed statistically significant differences (p<0.0001, one-way ANOVA). Post hoc testing showed significant intergroup differences between the following treatment groups and the negative control group (p<0.05, Tukey test): [BMP-2, SDF-1α, CXCR4(+) MSCs]; [BMP-2, CXCR4(+) MSCs]; [SDF-1α, CXCR4(+) MSCs]; [SDF-1α, CXCR4(−) MSCs]. Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/tea