Figure 3
Effect of β-catenin overexpression on the retention of mouse mesenchymal stem cells (mMSCs) in the lung after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. (A) Ex vivo NIR imaging of the lungs. Representative photographs of colour-coded fluorescence images are shown from three mouse lungs obtained 3, 7 and 14 days after mMSC administration from the LPS + mMSC control and LPS + mMSC-Ctnnb1 groups. (B) Immunofluorescent staining to detect mMSC engraftment in lung tissue is shown as green fluorescent protein (GFP)-positive (green; white arrows point to the GFP-positive cells). The nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Representative photographs are shown from six mouse lungs 3, 7 and 14 days after mMSC administration from the LPS+ mMSC control and LPS + mMSC-Ctnnb1 groups. All microphotographs were taken at 400× magnification (scale bar = 20 μm). The count of GFP-positive MSCs in randomly selected high-power fields (count/field) represent the mean ± standard deviation (n = 6). & P < 0.05, versus LPS + mMSC control group.