Figure 3

Comparative analysis of adipogenic differentiation capacity of MS-, ES, IT- and T-MPCs. (A) Adipogenesis was detected by the formation of multiple, intracellular lipid-filled droplets stained with Oil Red O after induction for 21 days (original magnification 100×, scale bar = 50 μm). (B) In the spectrophotometric analysis of Oil Red O staining, optical densities were significantly higher in MS-, ES-, IT- and T-MPCs groups than the control group. No significant differences were found between any of the MPCs groups. The expression of specific adipogenic genes was evaluated by real-time qRT-PCR. LPL (C) and PPARγ (D) were up-regulated during adipogenesis in all MPCs groups. However, there were no significant differences in the expression level of two markers among any of the MPCs groups. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *, ‡ P = 0.003, †, ‡‡ P = 0.002, § P = 0.017, ǁ P = 0.005, ¶, ** P < 0.001, †† P = 0.010, §§, ǁǁ P = 0.002, ¶¶ P = 0.020. ES, ethmoid sinus; IT, inferior turbinate; LPL, lipoprotein lipase; MPCs, mesenchymal progenitor cells; MS, maxillary sinus; PPARγ, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma; T, tonsil.