Figure 4.

In vivo anti-inflammatory effects of TNF-α-primed TMSCs against colitis. DSS was used to induce acute colitis in C57BL/6 mice. TMSCs with or without pre-treatment were injected into colitic mice on either day 1 or day 5 of DSS induction to assess (A–D) preventive or (E–H) therapeutic potency (n = 5 for non-induced healthy control marked as (-), n = 10 for each experimental group); (A) Survival rate and body weight loss were consistently monitored until day 12; (B) Disease activity index (DAI) was determined on day 10 post colitis induction; (C) Gross colon length was measured after sacrifice on day 12; (D) Colon tissues were processed and stained with H&E for histopathologic examination. The histological score was calculated by determining the entire epithelium destruction, the submucosal edema, and the inflammatory cell infiltration in the lamina propria and submucosa, scale bar = 50 µm (top), 20 µm (bottom); (E–H) The same methodologies were conducted for therapeutic potency assessment; All results are shown as mean ± S.D. p-value = * < 0.05, ** < 0.01, *** < 0.001, compared to the control group marked as ‘+’.