Fig. 1

Characteristics of preDSC lines. a Decidualization. After 14 days of culture with P4 and cAMP, undifferentiated preDSCs (Undif.) changed from a fibroblastic to a rounder shape (left) and secreted PRL (right). The bars show the percentage of round cells and the secretion of PRL by a preDSC line (mean ± SD of three independent determinations). Scale bar, 50 μm. b Detection by RT-PCR of pluripotent stem cell markers in four preDSC lines. c Cloning efficiencies of the three preDSC lines. d Mesenchymal differentiation of a preDSC line. Undifferentiated preDSCs (undif.), osteogenic (ost.), adipogenic (adip.), and chondrogenic (chond.) differentiated preDSCs. Differentiation was documented with alizarin staining (ost.), oil red O solution (adip.), and safranin O (chond.). Scale bar, 50 μm. Molecular markers of differentiation were detected by RT-PCR: PPARγ2 (adip.), collagen type II (chond.), osteopontin, and AP (ost.). AP and osteopontin were also positive in undifferentiated preDSC lines [25, 28]. Beta-2 microglobulin (B2MG) was used as the loading control. The bars represent mean ± SD of three independent determinations. These experiments were done in 4 independent replications. *P < 0.001, **P < 0.0005