Fig. 1

HPc potentiates the hepatotrophic and anti-apoptotic effects of co-culture with MSCs. a Representative histogram of DCFDA to measure intracellular ROS fluorescence intensity of serum-deprived, HPc-, and HPc + NAC-pretreated MSCs. b Bar chart of normalised MFI of intra-MSC ROS activity. Values are mean ± standard deviation (n = 6). *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01, versus NPc-MSCs. c Albumin secretion and d urea synthesis of mono- and co-cultured hepatocytes with NPc- or HPc-MSCs, with or without NAC 10 mM. e Soluble CCK18 and f CK18 releases of mono- and co-cultured hepatocytes. g Staurosporine cytotoxicity assay of mono-cultured hepatocytes and resistance of co-cultured hepatocytes to 1 μM staurosporine-induced cellular apoptosis and h total death. Values are mean ± standard deviation (n = 6). **p < 0.01, versus hepatocyte mono-culture; ^## p <0.01, versus co-culture with NPc-MSCs; ⁺ p <0.05 and ⁺⁺ p <0.01, versus co-culture with HPc-MSCs; ^^p <0.01, versus hepatocyte mono-culture treated with 1 μM staurosporine. CCK18 Caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18, CK18 Cytokeratin 18, Co Co-culture; DCFDA Dichloro-dihydrofluorescein diacetate acetyl ester, HPc Hypoxia-preconditioned, Hx Hepatocyte mono-culture; MFI Median fluorescence intensity, NAC N-acetylcysteine, NPc Normoxia-preconditioned, SD Serum-deprived, SF Serum-free, SS Staurosporine