Ghrelin Improves Functional Survival of Engrafted Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Ischemic Heart through PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway

Figure 7

Ghrelin pretreated ADMSCs implantation regulated AKT phosphorylation in mouse infarcted heart and microvessel density in the myocardial infarction sites. (a) ADMSCs implantation regulated AKT phosphorylation in mouse infarcted heart and quantification of phosphorylation of AKT (normalized to total AKT and control group). (b) Microvessel density in the myocardial infarction sites and quantitative analysis. (b) Representative images of myocardial sections from different groups stained with CD31 antibody, (b-A) sham group; (b-B) MI group; (b-C) ADMSC group; and (b-D) ADMSC-ghrelin group. Microvessel densities were statistically compared below between different groups (scale bar = 100 μm). versus sham group, versus MI group, and versus ADMSC group.

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