Fig. 6

Osteogenic abilities of bone marrow-derived MSCs are not defective in patients with osteonecrosis. a Quantitative RT-PCR of osteoblast-related genes from control and osteogenic-induced MSCs after 10 days were normalized and compared according to housekeeping genes as control. b Scatter plots (left) showing the distribution of total fluorescence intensity from FACS analysis (right) of cellular osteocalcin expression in MSCs. The relative fluorescence intensity shows significant differences between control and osteogenic differentiation conditions. c Alizarin Red staining (left) indicating mineralized nodule formation of cultured MSCs after treatment with osteogenic media for 21 days. Quantitative analysis of the amount of Alizarin staining in each group is also indicated (right). No significant difference (NS) was found between MSCs from SCD patients with early-stage osteonecrosis and patients with further stages of the disease at a distant site. Alizarin Red staining was independent of the disease stage. d Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for interleukin-8 (IL-8), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Concentration (pg/mL) of cytokines and growth factors in supernatants of MSCs of SCD patients after 2 days of culture. MSCs from SCD patients produce distinct levels of IL-8. Horizontal bars represent the mean and SD of data. The triangles represent individual values. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001