Figure 6.

Differentially expressed proteins in adult and fetal sheep in response to injury. Comparison of adult and fetal secretomes from injured versus control cartilage (three biological and two technical replicates/group). (A) Neutrophil derived proteins—pointing to a higher neutrophil activity in adult than fetal samples. (B) Acute phase proteins showing a more pronounced upregulation in adult compared to fetal animals. (C) Macrophage marker proteins indicating a higher macrophage activity in fetal than adult samples. (D) Several growth factors with a high baseline expression in the fetus. (E) Proteins secreted by fetal MSCs which are described as healing-associated, and which were also detectable in the secretomes of the fetal in vivo samples and might thus be of therapeutic interest. AC: adult uninjured control samples; AId3: adult injured samples, 3-days post-injury; FCd1: fetal uninjured control samples, 1-day post-surgery of injured twins; FId1: fetal injured samples, 1-day post-injury; FCd3: fetal uninjured control samples, 3-days post-surgery of injured twins; FId3: fetal injured samples, 1-day post-injury; *: statistically significant difference, p < 0.05.