Figure 7. Wnt/β-catenin signaling and senescence of human MSCs.
(a) An age-related increase of β-catenin protein levels in MSCs. (b) Knockdown of β-catenin protein in MSCs was achieved with β-catenin-siRNA (+), but not with non-silencing control siRNA (−). (c) Knockdown β-catenin proteins with β-catenin siRNA (n = 12) decreased SA-β-Gal+ cells (%) in MSCs, compared with control siRNA (n = 11) (*p = 0.001, Mann-Whitney test). (d) Knockdown β-catenin proteins with β-catenin siRNA (n = 6) increased ALP activity in MSCs, compared with control siRNA (n = 7) (*p = 0.02, two-tail unpaired t test with Welch correction).