Fig. 3

Astaxanthin (ATX) treatment attenuates total body irradiation (TBI)-induced bone marrow cell reduction in vivo. Mice were randomly divided into four groups and were administered DMSO or 50 mg/kg ATX by gavage for 3 days before exposure to 4 Gy TBI and then continuously for 7 days after irradiation. Control/ATX mice were sham-irradiated. All mice were sacrificed at 12 days after exposure to TBI. The numbers and frequencies of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) and LSK cells in bone marrow were then analyzed by flow cytometry. a Bar graph showing the numbers of bone marrow cells per femur. b The numbers of HPCs (Lineage⁻Sca1⁻c-kit⁺ bone marrow cells) per femur. c The numbers of LSKs (Lineage⁻Sca1⁺c-kit⁺ bone marrow cells) per femur. d Representative FACS plots show the percentages of HPC and LSK. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM (N = 5). ^a P < 0.05 vs control; ^b P < 0.05 vs TBI