Fig. 2

Characteristics of Pten^+/flox and Cre⁺Pten^+/flox MSCs. Aa, b Representative morphologies of the adherent cells derived from Pten^+/flox and Cre⁺Pten^+/flox mice are shown at passage 3. Ac, d von Kossa staining shows the mineral deposition of the differentiated Pten^+/flox and Cre⁺Pten^+/flox MSCs. Ae, f Oil Red O staining shows the induced adipocytes from Pten^+/flox and Cre⁺Pten^+/flox MSCs. Ag, h Flow cytometric analysis shows the uniform and identical immunophenotypes of Pten^+/flox and Cre⁺Pten^+/flox cells at passage 3. B Relative level of OCN and OPN mRNA in Pten^+/flox and Cre⁺ Pten^+/flox cells cultured in osteo-induced medium. C Quantity of calcium deposition of MSCs with different genotypes during osteoblastic differentiation. D The mRNA expression of genes specific for adipo-induction. Ea–b The frequency of MSCs in bone marrow was approximated using the markers Ter119⁻CD45⁻CD140b⁺. F, G CFU-f assay shows Cre⁺Pten^+/flox marrow cells possess higher colony-forming efficiency. H Western blot shows the expression of Pten in different cells. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001