Skip to main content
Figure 4 | Skeletal Muscle

Figure 4

From: Injectable polyethylene glycol-fibrinogen hydrogel adjuvant improves survival and differentiation of transplanted mesoangioblasts in acute and chronic skeletal-muscle degeneration

Figure 4

Quantitative analysis of cell proliferation and apoptosis for mesoangioblasts in PBS and embedded into polyethylene glycol-fibrinogen (PF) injected into injured tibialis anterior (TA) muscle. (A) Number of cells positive for lacZ, bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and terminal dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) in five randomly selected, non-adjacent sections of the injured TA from Rag2 γ-chain null mice, 48 hours after injection of nuclear (n)lacZ mesoangioblasts in PBS (black bars) or in PF (white bars). The histogram reveals that the total number of lacZ+ and BrdU+ cells was not significantly different but the number of apoptotic (TUNEL+) cells was reduced by several fold when cells were injected in PF hydrogel (*P<0.01 by ANOVA). (B) Western blotting (n = 3, one representative shown in the figure) of cleaved caspase-3 on total protein extracts from the different treatments of injured TA muscle samples from three different Rag2 γ-chain null mice. The data reveal a robust increase in expression of caspase-3 in the TA treated with PBS mesoangioblasts compared with the TA treated with PF mesoangioblasts or sham controls. (C) The caspase-3/glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) ratio band densitometry data from five different western blots revealed 10-fold higher caspase-3 protein expression level in TA samples injected with PBS mesoangioblasts (white bar) compared with TA samples treated with PF mesoangioblasts (chequered bar). (*P<0.01) between the assessed samples (ANOVA).

Back to article page