Fig. 1

Age-related differences in morphology, cell proliferation and osteogenic/adipogenic differentiation of mouse BMSCs. a Images of BMSCs showing cell morphology at passage 1 (scale bar: 100 μm). b Growth curves of YMSCs and AMSCs (determined by CCK-8 assays). c Cell viability (EdU assays) of YMSCs and AMSCs, and statistical analysis (performed by comparing the number of EdU-positive cells in five random fields). d Potential of mouse YMSCs and AMSCs toward osteogenic differentiation analyzed via Alizarin Red S staining; images of Alizarin Red S-stained mineral nodules were acquired with an inverted microscope after 14 days of osteogenic induction (scale bar: 100 μm) and data analysis. e Potential of mouse YMSCs and AMSCs toward adipogenic differentiation analyzed via Oil Red O staining; images of Oil Red O-stained intracellular lipid droplets were acquired with an inverted microscope after 7 days of adipogenic induction (scale bar: 100 μm) and data analysis. Data presented as mean ± standard deviation. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, a significant difference between YMSCs and AMSCs at the same time point (b) or between the displayed columns (c–e). AMSC aged bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell, YMSC young bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell, P1 passage 1, OD optical density, EdU 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine