Fig. 2

The extracellular catabolism of ATP and UDP is faster in BM-MSCs from Pm women than in cells from younger females. Represented is the total NTPDase activity measured in BM-MSCs (first subculture) from young females and Pm women normalized by the number of viable cells given by the MTT assay when A ATP and B UDP were used as substrates. Cells were allowed to grow for 7 and 21 days in an osteogenic-inducing medium. Nucleotides (100 µM) were added to the culture medium at zero time. Samples (75 µl) were collected from each well 30 min after incubation with the nucleotides. Each collected sample was analysed by HPLC to measure the amounts of ATP or UDP remaining in the incubation fluid. Boxes and whiskers represent pooled data from three young females (19 ± 6 years old) and twelve Pm women (69 ± 3 years old); each individual was tested in triplicate. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 (one-way ANOVA with Sidák’s multiple comparison test, single pooled variance) represent significant differences