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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Sep 15.
Published in final edited form as: Acta Biomater. 2017 Jul 12;60:181–189. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2017.07.017

Figure 5. Post-implantation characterization of implanted MSCs.

Figure 5

To further analyze the role of the physiomechanical properties of the encapsulating biomaterial on MSC-immune system cross-talk, the encapsulated SHED cells were subcutaneously implanted in wild type mice and SHED apoptosis was evaluated 1 week post-implantation. Encapsulated SHED in alginate hydrogel implanted in nude mice were used as the control. (a) Immunohistochemical staining with antibodies against anti-NF-kB p65 and anti- Cox-2 antibodies of specimens retrieved after one week of implantation showing higher expression levels of (upper panel) Cox-2 and (lower panel) NF-kB p65 (red arrows) in encapsulated SHED in alginate hydrogel with lower elasticity and greater porosity. (b) Semi-quantitative analysis of the percentage of positive surface area in panel a. (c) Fluorescent immuno-staining with antibodies against Caspase-3 (upper panel) and Caspase-8 (lower panel) after 1 week of implantation revealing significantly higher expression levels of Caspase-3 and Caspase-8 in encapsulated SHED in alginate hydrogel with lower elasticity and greater porosity. (d) Semi-quantitative analysis of the number of positive cells in panel c. NS= not significant, *P<0.05, **P<0.01.