Fig. 6
Differentiation capacity of conditioned UC tissue explant cultures. After thawing and reculture of three conditioned cryopreserved UC tissues as well as second thawing and repeated reculture (MSC100314UC-re(2)) of previously cryopreserved UC tissue, the resulting MSC explant cultures were investigated for their potential to differentiate along the osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic pathway. All explant cultures when maintained in appropriate differentiation medium demonstrated strong Alizarin red staining which indicated increased calcification during osteogenesis in contrast to MSC control cultures maintained in normal growth medium. Moreover, the appearance of lipid droplets in the cultures as indicated by oil red O staining (yellow arrowheads) revealed adipogenic properties. Finally, enhanced production of proteoglycans within the extracellular matrix represents a property of chondrogenic cells which was detectable by alcian blue staining of differentiated MSC in contrast to corresponding control cells