Fig. 1

Effects of melatonin on ABCA1 expression and intracellular cholesterol level under high cholesterol condition. a, b UCB-MSCs were treated with various concentrations and time and then viability was measured by trypan blue exclusion assay (n = 5). c, d UCB-MSCs were treated with 200 μM cholesterol for 24 h. c The expression levels of cholesterol transporter genes (ABCA1, ABCG1, ABCG5, and ABCG8) were measured by qPCR (n = 5). d The expression level of ABCA1 was quantified by western blot assay and relative optical density was measured by ImageJ (n = 5). e UCB-MSCs were pretreated with DIDS (10 μM) for 30 min prior to cholesterol treatment (200 μM, 24 h) and cellular cholesterol level was measured by cholesterol quantification kit (n = 5). f Melatonin (1 μM) was pretreated for 30 min before cholesterol treatment (200 μM, 24 h) and the expression level of ABCA1 was measured by western blotting (n = 5). g UCB-MSCs were pretreated with DIDS or melatonin prior to cholesterol treatment and their total cholesterol levels were measured by quantification kit (n = 5). All blot images are representative and quantitative data are presented as a mean ± standard error of the mean. *p < 0.05 vs control, ^#p < 0.05 vs cholesterol, ^$p < 0.05 vs melatonin + cholesterol