Fig. 5.

Osteogenic differentiation after ectopic implantation of hydrogel scaffolds with different densities of BMSCs for 4 weeks. (a) Immunofluorescence staining images of osteogenic related proteins Runx2 (green), Osterix (green), OCN (red), and Col-1a (red). Cell nuclei stained in blue. Scale bar: 50 ​μm. (b) Masson staining of isolated tissues showing collagen deposition (blue), and (c) Collagen type I and Ⅲ (orange-yellow indicates type I collagen, blue-green indicates type III collagen) as observed after Sirius red staining. Scale bar: 100 ​μm. (d) Quantitative results of the area of collagen and (e) the ratio of type Ⅰ/Ⅲ collagen. ^αp<0.05 vs T0; ^βp<0.05 vs T5; ^γp<0.05 vs T6; ^δp<0.05 vs T7. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)