Fig. 5

Co-culturing of CD34⁺ cells with P-MSCs reduced the level of apoptosis and expansion of the primitive HSCs by preventing apoptosis via up regulation of BCL-2. a Higher percentage of live TNC as well as gated CD34⁺ cells were detected in P-MSCs:CD34⁺ co-cultures. Inset depicts representative FACS profile depicting the same P-MSCs:CD34⁺ co-cultures (Lower panel), C-MSCs:CD34⁺ co-cultures (Upper panel). b Significantly higher levels of Bcl-2 were detected in CD34⁺CD38⁻ cells from the P-MSCs:CD34⁺ co-cultures. Co-cultures of C-MSCs displayed higher Bcl-2 levels in CD34⁺CD38⁺ and CD34⁻CD38⁺ cells. Bax expression was significantly higher in all the subsets from C-MSCs: CD34+ co-cultures. Data are represented as mean ± standard deviation from three different independent experimental sets. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, and ***p ≤ 0.001. P-MSCs placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells, TNC total nucleated cells, FACS fluorescence-activated cell sorting, C-MSCs cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells