Mesenchymal stem cells alleviate renal injury of lupus nephritis mice by reconstructing the immune microenvironment of renal tissue

Figure 1 Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells morphology and identification. A: Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) morphology is displayed at 50 × magnification; B: UCMSCs morphology is displayed at 200 × magnification; C and D: The effective differentiation of UCMSCs into osteoblasts was confirmed by alizarin red staining. At a magnification of 100 × representative pictures of the control group (C) and induction group (D) were captured; E and F: Oil Red O staining was used to successfully differentiate UCMSCs into adipocytes. At a magnification of 100 ×, representative pictures of the control group (E) and induction group (F) were captured; G and H: Alcian blue staining was used to identify the chondrocytes that were successfully differentiated from UCMSCs. At 200 × magnification, representative pictures of the control group (G) and induction group (H) were captured; I-L: Using flow cytometry, the surface markers of UCMSCs, such as CD90, CD105, CD73, CD45, CD34, CD11b, CD19, and HLA-DR, were examined. Of them, more than 99% of the cells were positive for CD90, CD105, and CD73. The other genes’ expression was nearly negligible.