Quantification of the cell cultures of hMSCs encapsulated
in the
Gel–HA hydrogels and cultured in the GM and CM for 14 days.
(A) Relative collagen type II gene expression from qPCR, represented
as a change in the expression relative to Gel in the GM, to which
a value of 1 was assigned in the graph. One-way ANOVA with Tukey post-test
was performed to find statistical differences; * for p < 0.05, ** for p < 0.01, and *** for p < 0.005. (B) Percentage of positive cells for aggrecan.
Mann–Whitney–Wilconson test demonstrated that groups
within a type of culture medium show statistically significant differences
between each other, except those marked with “ns” (not
significant). (C) Percentage of positive cells for SOX-9 obtained
from the immunofluorescence images. One-way ANOVA with Tukey post-test
was applied for samples cultured in the CM, and Kruskal–Wallis
nonparametric test was applied for samples cultured in the CM. * for p < 0.05, ** for p < 0.01, and ***
for p < 0.005. (D) Percentage of cells expressing
GAGs calculated from alcian blue images. Mann−Whitney−Wilconson
test demonstrated that groups within a type of culture medium show
statistically significant differences between each other, except those
marked with “ns” (not significant).