Fig. 1

Effects of hUCB-MSC treatment on LPS-induced sepsis. a Schematic diagram of the study. Saline or a suspension of hUCB-MSCs was slowly infused into tail veins. Mice with sepsis were intraperitoneally induced with 0.5 or 25 (for survival study) mg/kg of LPS 24 h after hUCB-MSC administration, and 6 h later, they were sacrificed for in vivo experiments or were visualized by two-photon intravital imaging. b hUCB-MSC treatment significantly improved survival in the hUCB-MSC-treated condition compared to that in the LPS-only condition. hUCB-MSCs were administered 24 h prior to LPS (25 mg/kg) treatment. Mice were monitored for 6 days; n = 7 for each condition. Kaplan–Meier curves were analyzed by a log-rank test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.005. c Pathological inflammatory changes in lung (alveoli) and liver (central vein and interstitium) tissues were shown by H&E staining (original magnification, × 400; scale bar = 50 μm). d The graphs show the number of leukocytes for each condition relative to that in control lung (alveoli) and liver (central vein and interstitium) tissues. Quantitative results indicate the average values ± SD of at least three independent experiments. The results were analyzed by a one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post hoc test. *p < 0.01 and **p < 0.005 versus control; ***p < 0.001 versus each condition