Erythropoietin-overexpressing mesenchymal stem cells accelerate diabetic wound healing via steroid signaling pathway modulation

Figure 1 Effects of erythropoietin-overexpressing mesenchymal stem cells on the migration and viability of human foreskin fibroblast cells. A: Western blot analysis of erythropoietin (EPO) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase expression in unmodified mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), negative control MSCs transduced with empty lentiviral vector (NC-MSCs), and EPO-overexpressing MSCs (EPO-MSCs), and quantification of relative EPO expression; B: Cell viability of human foreskin fibroblast cells cultured with conditioned medium from the diabetes mellitus medium control (DM), NC-MSC, and EPO-MSC groups, as determined by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay; C: Representative images of scratch wound assays at 0 hour and 24 hours and quantitative analysis of the migration area of human foreskin fibroblast cells treated with conditioned medium from the DM, NC-MSC, and EPO-MSC groups. Data are presented as mean ± SD. Superscript letters denote statistically significant differences between the indicated groups (^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^cP < 0.001; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test). EPO: Erythropoietin; GAPDH: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; MSC: Mesenchymal stem cell; NC-MSC: Negative control mesenchymal stem cell; EPO-MSC: Erythropoietin-overexpressing mesenchymal stem cell.