HNF-4α determines hepatic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow

Figure 4 Detection of liver-enriched transcription factors in hepatocyte nuclear factor-4α overexpressing induced mesenchymal stem cells by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The induced mesenchymal stem cells (8 wk post-induction) were infected with adenovirus containing rHNF-4α gene (Ad/HNF4α-IRES-EGFP) (indicated as AdIEHNF4) or parental control adenovirus (Ad-IRES-EGFP) (indicated as AdIE). The relative level in the control group was set to 1. A: The overexpression of rHNF4α was demonstrated in the Ad/HNF4α-IRES-EGFP infected cells; B: The induction effect of HNF-4α on the expression of liver-enriched transcription factors was represented as HNF1α, HNF3β, HNF6, C/EBPα and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα), respectively. The amount of input RNA was normalized using the housekeeping gene hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. Each column represents the mean ± SD of three independent experiments and the induction fold for each gene was significant (P < 0.05). HNF: Hepatocyte nuclear factor.