Fig. 7

UC-MSCs increase IL-10 expression in Treg cells in the spleen. HFD-induced obese mice were randomly divided into an MSC group (received UC-MSC infusion once per week for 6 weeks) and an HFD group (received corresponding PBS infusions). Mice fed a normal chow diet were used as controls (referred to as the Nor group). One week after the last UC-MSC infusion, the mice were sacrificed, and the spleen was harvested. Then, splenocytes were extracted from the spleen and detected by flow cytometry (a, b, c). a The percentage of IL-10⁺ cells among total splenocytes. b The percentage of CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells among CD4⁺splenocytes. c The percentage of IL-10⁺ cells among CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells. n = 6 mice per group. d–h Splenocytes collected from HFD-fed obese mice were co-cultured with UC-MSCs via a Transwell system or cultured alone for 24 h, followed by removing the UC-MSCs and stimulating the splenocytes with ConA for 72 h. During the whole period, the splenocytes were cultured with RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with murine recombinant interleukin-2 (20 U/ml). The levels of IL-10 in splenocyte supernatant were detected by ELISA (d). The IL-10 gene expression in the splenocytes was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis (e). The percentage of CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells among CD4⁺ splenocytes and the percentage of IL-10⁺ cells among CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells were detected by flow cytometry (f, g, h). Values are the means ± SDs of three individual experiments, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01