Effect of glycyrrhizic acid and 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid on the differentiation of human umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes

Figure 6 Immunocytochemical analysis and quantification of hepatic proteins in human umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cells treated with glycyrrhizic acid, 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid and their combination. A: At day 21, treated mesenchymal stem cells exhibited positive expression for hepatocyte specific proteins including, alpha-fetoprotein, albumin, hepatocyte nuclear factor-3α, and tyrosine-aminotransferase in all treatment groups as compared to the untreated control; B: Fluorescence intensities of all treatment groups were measured using Image J software. Statistical analysis was conducted by independent sample t-test. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 3); level of significance ^aP ≤ 0.05 (where ^bP ≤ 0.01 and ^cP ≤ 0.001).