Figure 3.

CCR2-modified MSCs possess increased migrative capacity towards CCL2 in vitro and to ischemic lesion in vivo. (A) Transwell invasion assays were performed to detect the in vitro migration of transfected MSC^dtomato and MSC^CCR2 to recombinant human CCL2 (hCCL2) and rat CCL2 (rCCL2), respectively. Scale bar: 100μm. (B) Quantification of migrated cells showed the increase of MSCs stained by 0.1% crystal violet in CCR2 group compared to dtomato control. n = 4. (C) Representative confocal images of injected dtomato-positive MSCs located in the affected hemisphere at 1d, 2d and 3d post-injection. Scale bar: 200μm. (D) Quantification of migrated cells was conducted by counting dtomato-positive cells in six randomized fields. The experiments were performed in six replicates. All data are expressed as means ± SEM; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and n.s. is non-significant.