Figure 1.

Analysis of MSC-secreted paracrine cytokines. (A) Schematic and field distribution of pFUS used in our study for MSCs stimulation: MSCs were first cultured in the well plates; the plate was then immersed in an autoclaved water and placed above the pFUS transducer at the transducer’s focal spot. The transmitted ultrasound waves were produced by a function generator, amplified through a power amplifier at a constant gain, and emitted from a focused piston transducer. In order for sound waves to cover whole MSCs cultured in well-plate, each well was graded into 25 spots (5 × 5 mesh, 5.75 mm distance between each point). (B) Stimulation of all three types of MSCs (i.e., BM-MSCs, AD-MSCs, and UC-MSCs) with low-intensity or high-intensity pFUS resulted in changes in cytokine secretion compared with control samples and (C) cytokines were characterized based on their immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and angiogenic effects. This data has been compiled as a heat map with upregulation represented as a red color gradient and downregulation represented as a green color gradient. AD: adipose tissue; BM: bone marrow; MSCs: mesenchymal stem cells; pFUS: pulsed focused ultrasound; UC: umbilical cord.