Fig. 5

Biological effect of HGF on FLSs. a IL-6 production by FLSs was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay after treatment with HGF for a specific time or concentration. IL-6 level of FLS treated with 200 ng/ml HGF for different time (left). IL-6 level of FLS treated with different concentration of HGF for 12 h (right) * represents p < 0.05 (other groups vs. the first group). ** represent p < 0.01 (other groups vs. the first group). b Clonogenic analysis of FLSs after different treatments. “DPSC” represents synovial cells cultured in culture media containing DPSC culture supernatant (1:3 v/v). “HGF” represents synovial cells cultured in culture media containing HGF (100 ng/ml). “DPSCs-HGF” represents synovial cells cultured in culture media containing DPSCs-HGF culture supernatant plus HGF (1:3 v/v). After 21 days of culture, colonies were fixed and stained with Giemsa solution. c Western blot and IOD analysis results show the proteins expressed in FLSs after specific treatments. “DPSC” represents synovial cells cultured in culture media containing DPSC culture supernatant (1:3 v/v). “HGF” represents synovial cells cultured in culture media containing HGF (100 ng/ml). “DPSCs-HGF” means synovial cells cultured in culture media containing DPSCs-HGF culture supernatant plus HGF (1:3 v/v). After 12 h of treatment, cell lysate was analyzed by western blotting. For detection of cleaved Caspase-3, cells were treated with 1000 ng/ml TNF-α for 12 h before analysis. IODs were analyzed by Image Pro Plus 6. “Relative IOD” represents the IOD of a specific protein divided by the IOD of GAPDH