Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Primes Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Enhanced Chondrogenesis
Figure 2
FGF-2 reduces potency and modulates lineage-specific transcription factor expression of hMSCs.
Human MSCs were expanded for 2 passages in 5% FBS with (+) or without (−) FGF-2 supplementation and assayed for gene and protein expression prior to pellet culture. (A, B, C) Real-time RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that FGF-2-expanded hMSCs significantly downregulated the expression of embryonic stem cell markers (A), modulated the expression of key lineage-specific transcription factors (B), and upregulated the expression of L-Sox5 (C). All values were normalized to GAPDH expression and compared to the non-FGF-2-expanded control. Values are represented as mean ± SD. *p<0.05, **p<0.005, n = 3. (D) Western blot analysis showed that FGF-2-expanded hMSCs exhibited higher Sox9 protein levels than non-FGF-2-expanded hMSCs prior to CG, and after pellet formation, pSox9 protein levels were present at higher levels. GAPDH was used as a loading control.
