BMSC-Derived Exosomes Alleviate Intervertebral Disc Degeneration by Modulating AKT/mTOR-Mediated Autophagy of Nucleus Pulposus Cells

Figure 1

Morphology and characterization of BMSCs, NPCs, and BMSC-Exos: (a) P0-generation BMSC morphology (scale bar: 200 μm); (b) Oil Red O staining (scale bar: 100 μm); (c) Alizarin Red staining (scale bar: 100 μm); (d) Alcian Blue staining (scale bar: 50 μm), ; (e) flow cytometric analysis of BMSC surface markers (CD29, CD90, CD34, and CD45); (f) NPC morphology (scale bar: 200 μm); (g) toluidine blue staining of NPCs (scale bar: 100 μm); (h) type II collagen immunochemical staining of NPCs (scale bar: 100 μm); (i) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of BMSC-Exo (scale bar: 200 nm); (j) NanoSight tracking analysis (NTA) for the diameters of BMSC-Exo; (k) Western blot analysis of CD9, CD63, and TSG101, ; (l) analysis of cellular exosome uptake by NPCs. . Scale bar: 25 μm.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

(i)

(j)

(k)

(l)