Figure 6.

Induction of autophagy strengthened homing of UC‐MSCs to the liver after ischaemia/reperfusion injury via the CXCR4/CXCL12 axis. A, mRNA expression of CXCL12 in liver tissues was detected using real‐time polymerase chain reaction. Data are shown as the mean ± standard error of the mean (n = 7 mice/group). B, Protein expression of CXCL12 in liver tissues was evaluated using Western blotting assays. Data are shown as the mean ± standard error of the mean (n = 7 mice/group). Semi‐quantitative analysis of Western blot about CXCL12 protein expression. C, CellTrackerTM Green CMFDA (green) labelled UC‐MSCs were used to examine the count of UC‐MSCs engraftment in the liver tissues from each group. Scale bar: 200 µm. D, Quantification of migrated UC‐MSCs. Data are shown as the mean ± standard error of the mean (n = 7 mice/group). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 (all by analysis of variance). UC‐MSCs, umbilical cord‐derived mesenchymal stem cells