Figure 1.

Expression of THBS1 in chondrocyte and adipose stem cell (ASC) mono- or cocultures. (A) Proteins identified in the secretome of chondrocyte/ASC cocultures significantly differentially secreted in chondrocyte/ASC cocultures as compared to mixed monocultures. The white bars represented the fold change of protein expression in coculture and the dot plot represented the number of quantified peptides for each proteins. Abbreviations: PYCARD, PYD and CARD domain containing; CSTA, cystatin A; SRGN, serglycin; XYLT1, xylosyltransferase 1; THBS1, thrombospondin-1; PTX3, pentraxin-3; EDIL3, EGF-like repeats and discoidin domains 3; UCHL3, ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L3; IGFBP5, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 5; COL4A2, collagen type IV alpha 2; NDRG1, N-Myc downstream regulated 1; ARG1, arginase 1. (B) THBS1 protein was quantified in the supernatants of chondrocyte monocultures (Chondro), ASC monocultures (ASC) or cocultures by Enzyme-linked ImmunoSorbent Assay. Results are expressed as the mean concentration ± SEM (n = 26–50 patient cell replicates). (C) THBS1 mRNA level was measured in ASCs and in chondrocytes, cultured alone or in cocultures by RT-qPCR. Results are expressed as relative gene expression (2^−ΔCT) and represented as mean ± SEM (n = 5 patient cell replicates). (D) THBS1 mRNA level was measured in BM-MSCs and ASCs by RT-qPCR (n = 5). Statistics used unpaired t-test (B) or Mann–Whitney test (C,D): *p ≤ 0.05, ***p ≤ 0.001.