Tongxie Yaofang enhances the homing efficiency of exogenous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells to the colonic mucosa and alleviates ulcerative colitis

Figure 5 Tongxie Yaofang enhances the homing efficiency of exogenous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells to the rat colonic mucosa via the stromal cell-derived factor-1/C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 axis and alleviates ulcerative colitis symptoms. A: Changes in body weight during the study; B: Disease activity index scores of experimental rats; C: Representative images of colon length; D: Quantification of colon length; E: Representative hematoxylin and eosin-stained histological images; F: Histological scores; G-I: The mRNA levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (G), interleukin (IL)-6 (H), and IL-1β (I) in colon tissues assessed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR); J-L: Protein levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (J), IL-6 (K), and IL-1β (L) measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in colon tissues; M: Serum fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran concentrations; N and O: The mRNA levels of claudin-4 (N) and zonula occludens-1 (O) assessed by RT-qPCR; P-R: Protein expression of claudin-4 and zonula occludens-1; S and T: The mRNA levels of stromal cell-derived factor-1 (S) and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (T) assessed by RT-qPCR; U-W: Protein expression of stromal cell-derived factor-1 and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4. Data are presented as mean ± SD, n = 8 rats per group. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.001, compared with the control group; ^cP < 0.05, ^dP < 0.01, ^eP < 0.001, compared with the dextran sulfate sodium group; ^fP < 0.05, ^gP < 0.001, compared with the bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells group; ^hP < 0.05, ⁱP < 0.001, compared with the Tongxie Yaofang + bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells group; ^jP < 0.05, ^kP < 0.001, compared with the stromal cell-derived factor-1 + bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells group. CON: Control group; DSS: Dextran sulfate sodium; BMSCs: Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells; TXYF: Tongxie Yaofang; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; IL-6: Interleukin-6; IL-1β: Interleukin-1β; SDF-1: Stromal cell-derived factor-1; CXCR4: C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4; ZO-1: Zonula occludens-1.