Fig. 4. TSG-6 and iPSC-MSCs promote mucosal healing in murine colitis through interactions between CD44 and hyaluronic acid.
On the next day after intrarectal administration of TNBS, mice received different treatment: colitic mice given an intraperitoneal injection of 2 × 106 iPSC-MSCs/mouse after the pretreatment of intraperitoneal injections of CD44 inhibitory peptide (PEP-1) (TIP group) or control peptide (C-PEP) (TIC group) at the dose of 10 mg/kg daily; colitic mice treated with daily intraperitoneal injections of recombinant human TSG-6 (rhTSG6) at the dose of 5 μg/mouse after the pretreatment of intraperitoneal injections of PEP-1 (TTP group) or C-PEP (TTC group) at the dose of 10 mg/kg daily; healthy mice receiving daily intraperitoneal injections of PBS as a negative control (E-PBS group). a Changes of body weight were monitored daily during the whole observation. *P < 0.05 versus TNBS group. b Gross morphology and length of colons in individual groups. c Representative photographs of gross colonic ulcers are shown. Colonic ulcer area was measured by the ImageJ software. d Representative histology images and histological scores in individual groups. Double arrowhead lines indicated colonic ulcers. e Serum TSG-6 protein levels in individual groups were determined by ELISA. n = 6 mice per group. *P < 0.05