Figure 6. Chondrogenic potential of the BMMSCs in response to exosome-based incubation (control: cells in normal chondrogenic cultures); BMMSCs were incubated in normal chondrogenic medium supplemented with exosomes (M0-Exos, M1-Exos or M2-Exos).

(A) General view of Alcian blue staining after 7 days of chondrogenic induction. (B) Representative images of Alcian blue staining captured under the microscope (scale bar: 250 μm). (C–E) Expression levels of chondrogenesis-related genes (Cdh2, Col-2a1 and Sox9) in the BMMSCs after 7 days of chondrogenic induction (qRT-PCR assay). Data are presented as the mean ± SD; n = 3; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 indicate significant differences between the indicated columns.