Dental Pulp Mesenchymal Stem Cells Attenuate Limb Ischemia via Promoting Capillary Proliferation and Collateral Development in a Preclinical Model

Figure 1

MSCs improve limb functions and reduce ischemia-induced damage. Sixty 6-8-week-old Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups: bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs), adipose-derived MSCs (AD-MSCs), dental pulp-derived MSCs (DP-MSCs), umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs), buffer, and control groups. Rats in BM-MSCs, AD-MSCs, DP-MSCs, UC-MSCs, and buffer-treated groups received surgical ligation of two branches of the left femoral artery near the groin. Then, BM-MSCs, AD-MSCs, DP-MSCs, and UC-MSCs and 300 μl PBS were injected intramuscularly into the ischemic area of hind limbs, respectively. Semiquantitative assessments of limb function were performed at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks after therapy, and higher scores represent much more severe damage (a). At 4 weeks after MSC transplantation, the muscular tissues in the ischemic area were collected, fixed in 4% formaldehyde solution, processed, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). The representative images are shown in (b). The distributions of CD14⁺ cells and CD68⁺cells were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using an anti-rat CD14 antibody and anti-rat CD68 antibody. The representative images are shown in (c) and (d), respectively. Data in (a) were shown as .

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