Figure 3.

Comparison of Immunomodulatory Effects of EVs from Early- versus Late-Passage MSCs in a Mouse Model of Ocular Sjögren’s Syndrome

(A) Experimental scheme. (B) Ocular surface photograph after lissamine green staining to visualize the area of corneal epithelial defect. (C and D) The quantitation of corneal epithelial defects (C) and aqueous tear production (D) before and after treatment. (E) mRNA levels of inflammation-related cytokines in the ocular surface as measured by real-time RT-PCR. Shown are the values relative to normal wild-type (WT) mice. (F and G) PAS staining of the conjunctival fornix (F) to determine conjunctival goblet cells (original magnification, ×200) and the number of goblet cells per eye (G). (H) CD3 staining of the intraorbital lacrimal gland. (I) The number of CD3-stained foci per gland is presented. All data are presented as means ± SD. A dot represents data from an individual animal. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001 by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test. ns, not significant.