Fig. 4

Functional analysis using an in vitro co-culture model with DRG. Immunofluorescence microscopy (anti-ß3-Tubulin) of DRG alone (a FBS, d hPL), indirect co-culture (b FBS cond med, e hPL cond med), and direct co-culture serum-free (c ADSC (FBS-free), f ADSC (hPL-free)). Neurite maximal length (g) and neurite area (h) of single DRG grown alone, in direct or indirect co-culture with hADSC expanded in FBS or hPL. i Neurite maximal length of direct co-culture of single DRG with hADSC expanded in FBS or hPL—comparison between no serum-free and serum-free co-cultures. Scale bar: 500 μm. Experiments were conducted in biological triplicates (3 hADSC donors) and 9 technical repeats one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison tests were used for assessing statistical significance among the examined conditions: (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001)