Fig. 5

Multiple-injection hPD-MSC therapy-induced miR-145-5p downregulation resulted in increased BMPR2 expression and SMAD pathway activation. a Levels of miR-145-5p in serum after multiple-injection therapy were measured by qRT-PCR. The expression of miR-145-5p was significantly reduced after multiple-injection hPD-MSC therapy. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM. The asterisk represents statistical significance at p < 0.05. b Basic overview of two major SMAD pathways in TGF-β signaling. TGF-βs/Activins/Myostatin/Nodal ligands bind to receptors and lead to the phosphorylation of SMAD2/3, which are translocated into the nucleus and subsequently activate the expression of target genes. However, BMPs/GDFs/AMH ligands activate receptors, phosphorylate SMAD1/5/8, and translocate to the nucleus. In the nucleus, p-SMAD1/5/8 proteins act as transcriptional cofactors that activate target gene expression. c Changes in the expression of proteins related to BMP and SMAD signaling in ovaries after the multiple-injection therapy. The expression of BMPR2 and p-SMAD1/5 was significantly increased after multiple-injection hPD-MSC therapy. GAPDH was used as a loading control. C, control group; T, multiple-injection therapy group