Figure 1.

CSF-2 Is Actively Secreted by Stem Cells in Response to Various Injury Signals In Vitro and In Vivo

(A) Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were incubated in standard culture medium with or without H₂O₂ (10 mM) for 30 min, after which the medium was replaced with serum-free medium, and the cells were cultured for 48 h. (B) MSCs were exposed to acute irradiation at a dose of 4 Gy (X-ray), after which the medium was replaced with serum-free medium, and the cells were cultured for 48 h. (C) MSCs were cultured with or without serum for 48 h. (D) The 2% TCA treatment (150 μL, administered directly into the uterine horn) produced significant histological uterine endometrial ablation. (E) Increased CSF-2 concentrations by TCA treatment in the serum samples were also detected by ELISA. (F) TCA-induced acute endometrial ablation resulted in a clearly time-dependent manner, with a peak release 24 h after injury. (G) Cytokine/growth factor assay was performed using damaged and non-damaged samples. The membrane was printed with antibodies for 40 growth factors, cytokines, and receptors, with four positive and four negative controls in the upper and lower left corners. Five growth factors or related proteins (CXCL13, IL-16, CXCL10, CCL2, and TREM-1) were markedly enriched in the damaged groups compared with those in the control groups. The expression and secretion levels of CSF-2 in multiple cell types, such as fibroblasts, keratinocytes, endothelial cells, and MSCs, were detected by qPCR (H) and ELISA (I), respectively. β-actin was used as the internal control. The results represent the mean ± SD from three independent experiments.