Table 2.

Dose-dependent effects of MSC treatment on leucocyte infiltration, nerve fibre density and number of myenteric neurons in the inflamed distal colon

	Sham	TNBS	TNBS + 1 × 105 MSCs	TNBS + 1 × 106 MSCs	TNBS + 3 × 106 MSCs
Total no. CD45-IR cells
Mucosa	341 ± 34	927 ± 31###	686 ± 23***###	368 ± 27***^^^	425 ± 25***^^^
Muscle	33 ± 4	131 ± 1###	83 ± 5***###	32 ± 6***^^^	29 ± 6***^^^
β-tubulin (III)-IR fibre density
Mucosa	3.31 ± 0.09	1.68 ± 0.05###	2.54 ± 0.05***###	3.39 ± 0.08***^^^	3.35 ± 0.04***^^^
Muscle	5.54 ± 0.17	4.03 ± 0.11###	3.93 ± 0.07###	5.67 ± 0.10***^^^	5.50 ± 0.12***^^^
Total no. of Hu-IR myenteric neurons
Ganglia	124 ± 2	108 ± 5#	104 ± 2##	128 ± 3**^^	127 ± 4**^^
Area	1498 ± 13	1330 ± 41##	1312 ± 20###	1510 ± 19***^^	1513 ± 12***^^^
Total no. of nNOS-IR myenteric neurons
Ganglia	22 ± 1	27 ± 1##	27 ± 1###	20 ± 1***^^	22 ± 1**^^^
Area	262 ± 12	318 ± 7###	317 ± 5###	277 ± 6**^^	246 ± 3***^^^
Proportion of nNOS-IR myenteric neurons
Ganglia	17 ± 1	26 ± 2###	27 ± 1###	16 ± 1***^^^	18 ± 1***^^^
Area	17 ± 1	24 ± 1###	24 ± 1###	18 ± 1***^^^	16 ± 1***^^^
Total no. of ChAT-IR myenteric neurons
Ganglia	67 ± 1	52 ± 2##	57 ± 2##	64 ± 2**^	65 ± 3**^
Area	749 ± 29	545 ± 24###	585 ± 23##	708 ± 29**^	743 ± 14***^^
Proportion of ChAT-IR myenteric neurons
Ganglia	54 ± 1	49 ± 1	55 ± 1	50 ± 1	52 ± 4
Area	50 ± 2	41 ± 1##	45 ± 2	47 ± 2*	49 ± 1*

MSC mesenchymal stem cell, TNBS 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid, IR immunoreactive, nNOS neuronal nitric oxide synthase, ChAT Choline acetyltransferase

^# P < 0.05, ^## P < 0.01, ^### P < 0.001 when compared to sham-treated guinea-pigs

*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 when compared to TNBS-only administered guinea-pigs

^P < 0.05, ^^P < 0.01, ^^^P < 0.001 when compared to 1 × 10⁵ MSC-treated guinea-pigs