Fig. 1

Intramyocardial injection of MSCs^TXL significantly ameliorated cardiomyocyte apoptosis and limited inflammation at the early stage of AMI. A Flow cytometry indicated that MSCs were negative for CD45, CD11, CD31 and positive for CD90, CD29 and CD73. B Representative images of TUNEL staining 3 days after AMI. The regions boxed with white dashed lines are enlarged in the lower panel. Cardiomyocytes were stained with cTNT (red) and nuclei were stained blue. The arrows show the apoptotic cardiomyocytes. Scale bar = 20 μm. C Quantification of cTNT⁺TUNEL⁺ cardiomyocytes (4 random fields per animal; n = 5). Representative western blotting images (D) of Bax, cleaved-Caspase 3 and GAPDH and the relative level of Bax (E) and cleaved-Caspase 3 (F) (n = 4). GAPDH was used as a loading control. G and H Quantification of IL-6 and TNF-α levels in infarct border zone tissue of rat hearts at 3 days post-AMI using ELISA (n = 6). All data are expressed as the mean ± SD. Statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001