In vitro evaluation of r-BMSCs osteogenic differentiation on/in the microgels. (A) Schematic illustration of cell osteogenic differentiation on/in the microgels after 4 and 7 days of osteogenic incubation. (B) The protein expression of osteogenic markers of r-BMSCs. (C) Quantitative analysis of ALP, OCN, and COL-1 protein expression for 4 and 7 days on/in microgels, normalized to GAPDH. (D) qRT-PCR analysis of ALP, OCN, and COL-1 gene expression of r-BMSCs during 4 and 7 days of osteogenic incubation respectively. (E) OCN staining of microgels at day 4, 7 post-osteogenic incubation (red arrowheads: positive brown staining, scale bars: 100 μm, ns: no significance, ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001).