FIGURE 7.
MSC-EVs downregulate pro-fibrotic genes in kidney cortical fibroblasts in an in vitro model of AAN. (A) An illustration depicting the AAN in vitro assay whereby: mTECs treated with or without AA for 4 hrs were co-cultured with mouse fibroblasts (mkCF) in the presence or absence of MSC-EVs (75,000 EVs/cell) for 5 days at 37°C. (B) Gene expression analyses revealed an upregulation of the profibrotic markers: α-Sma, Tgfb1, and Col1a1 in mkCFs co-cultured with AA treated mTECs. The expression levels of all three pro-fibrotic genes were reduced significantly following treatment with MSC-EVs. The data represents the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments performed in quadruplicate. **p < 0.01 vs. AA, ***p < 0.001 vs. AA. A one way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multi comparison test was performed.