Fig. 1

AT-Ex increases the proliferation rate of normal cells. Normal human fibroblasts (NHF) (a), normal human keratinocytes (NHK) (b), normal human melanocytes (NHM) (c) and adipose-derived stem cell (ADSC) (d) cell cultures were grown in the presence of increasing doses (1%, 2%, 5%, and 10% v/v) of adipose tissue extracellular fraction (AT-Ex) or matched patient plasma for 3 and 6 days. Experiments were performed in full medium and starved medium. Cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay. Data represent the mean ± SD of 14 (NHK), 12 (NHM), 24 (NHF) and 5 (ADSCs) different experiments performed in duplicate; statistical significance versus untreated control is reported as *p < 0.05. e Immunofluorescence analysis of NHK and f NHM cells treated with AT-Ex or matched plasma (2%) for 24 h in starved medium was used to evaluate the expression of the proliferation marker Ki-67. Untreated cells were used as a reference. Nuclei were labeled with bisbenzidine (DAPI). Original magnification 40×. Images are representative of several independent experiments. Additionally, for immunofluorescence quantification, median fluorescence intensity (MFI) was measured by FACS analysis. Histogram plots report cell distribution of AT-Ex, plasma, and untreated (Ctrl) cells. OD optical density