Figure 4.

Expression of inflammatory cytokines after intravenous transplantation of MSCs. (A) RT-PCR study showed an increase of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in MSCs-treated rats especially 1 day after transplantation. (B) In Western blot results, IL-10 was highly expressed in MSC-treated rats until at least 2 days after transplantation. In addition, proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β was modestly decreased after transplantation of MSCs. TNF-α seems to be downregulated 3 days after transplantation. MSCs also immediately suppressed proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 at 1 h after transplantation. However, the response of rat IL-6, which has an immunoregulatory role as well, was increased 1-3 days after intravenous administration of MSCs. MSCs, mesenchymal stem cells; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; IL, interleukin; N, normal spinal cord.