Fig. 4

HGF plays a role in the MSC-induced differentiation of DCs. a Immunophenotype analysis of DCs (expression of MHCII, CD86, and CD40 on mDCs cultured for 72 h in the presence of MSCs or MSCs after transduction). The percentage of DCs positive for MHCII, CD86, and CD40 after coculture for 72 h with MSCs or transduced MSCs. b Cytokine secretion profiles of mDCs, MSC-DCs, NC-HGF-MSC-DCs, HGF-MSC-DCs, NC-shHGF-MSC-DCs, and shHGF-MSC-DCs after culture for 24 h. c Phagocytic ability analysis of MSC-induced DCs (percentage of OVA-FITC-positive cells). d, e Lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by ConA, mDCs, MSC-DCs, NC-HGF-MSC-DCs, HGF-MSC-DCs, NC-shHGF-MSC-DCs, and shHGF-MSC-DCs. Normal BALB/c mouse solenocytes were used as responder cells in the mitogen proliferative assay. The proliferative responses were assessed by CFSE labeling and FACS. (Inside the gray line, there are unstimulated splenic cells.) (n = 3, *P < 0.05 versus mDC; #P < 0.05 versus NC-HGF-MSC; &P < 0.05 versus NC-shHGF-MSC; data are expressed as mean ± SD). Each experiment was repeated at least three times