Fig. 1

VEGFA and BMP2 adenoviral vectors (ad) respectively upregulated the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) in BMSC. Representative immunofluorescence images of BMSC in monolayer transduced with ad-GFP (a), ad-VEGFA (b), and ad-VEGFA + BMP2 (c–e) adenoviral particles. BMSC (5× 10⁴) were seeded in each scaffold and harvested after 3 and 14 days for mRNA and protein analyses. Significant upregulation of VEGFA mRNA (f) and VEGFA protein (h) levels were found at both time points in both ad-VEGFA and ad-BMP2 + ad-VEGFA BMSC compared with the ad-GFP BMSC. Similarly, significant upregulation of BMP2 mRNA (g) was found in ad-BMP2 + VEGFA BMSC compared with the ad-GFP and ad-VEGFA BMSC at both time points. VEGFA and BMP2 mRNA levels were normalized to GAPDH mRNA level. i ELISA disclosed higher levels of secreted BMP2 in the culture supernatant of ad-BMP2 BMSC compared with the ad-GFP BMSC at both 3 and 14 days. Error bars in (f) and (g) represent SEM of three repeated experiments (n = 3) performed in three technical replicates. ANOVA test with Bonferroni post hoc analysis was used for statistical analysis in (f) and (g) and Student’s t test was performed in (i). Error bars in (i) represent SEM of three repeated experiments (n = 3). ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01. GFP green fluorescent protein, ns not significant