Fig. 1

Characterization of hNTSCs. a Endoscopic images of the human inferior turbinate in the right nasal cavity and the tissue obtained from turbinectomy stained with DAPI for nuclear labeling. Scale bar: 500 μm. b Confocal microscopy images of the human inferior turbinate after staining with antibodies against p75 NGF receptor, nestin, and β-III tubulin (green). Nuclei were labeled with DAPI (blue). Side of the mucosal layer in the inferior turbinate nasal tissue is marked with a* and b*. The submucosal area of the inferior turbinate nasal tissue is marked with c*. Scale bars: 20 μm. c Confocal microscopy images of cultured hNTSCs double stained for SSEA3 (green) and CD105 (red) in proliferation medium. Nuclei were labeled with DAPI (blue). Scale bars: 20 μm. d Flow cytometry analyses of SSEA-3 and CD105 expression in hNTSCs and hBM-MSCs. e, f Confocal microscopy images of hNTSCs and hBM-MSCs stained for nestin and β-III tubulin (green) in culture with proliferation medium and nestin, β-III tubulin, and NeuN (red) after 28 days of incubation in neurogenic differentiation medium. Nuclei were labeled with DAPI (blue). Scale bars: 50 μm. g Images of cultured hNTSCs and hBM-MSCs stained with Oil Red O on day 14 of incubation in adipogenic differentiation medium, Alizarin Red S on day 21 of incubation in osteogenic differentiation medium, and Safranin O on day 14 of induction in chondrogenic differentiation medium. Scale bars: 50 μm, 100 μm. h Growth rates of hNTSCs and hBM-MSCs incubated in proliferation medium for 4 days after plating. Cell growth was measured using an EZ-Cytox assay kit. Each bar represents relative cell growth (SD). For the multiple comparison tests, two-way ANOVA test was used to determine whether group differences were statistically significant. ***P < 0.001. i Cell proliferation of hNTSCs and hBM-MSCs incubated in proliferation medium for 7 days after plating. Cell proliferation was evaluated by trypan blue exclusion assay. Each bar represents viable cell numbers (SD). For the multiple comparison tests, two-way ANOVA was used to determine whether group differences were statistically significant. ***P < 0.001. All images and data are representative of two or three independent experiments