Fig. 4

The effects of honokiol on apoptosis and necrosis of hUC-MSCs. 2nd passage hUC-MSCs were cultured in 4 groups, a: Control, b: Chondrogenesis, c: IL-1β, d: Honokiol for 2 weeks. At the end of 2nd week, cells were stained with Hoechst 33,342 and PI for apoptosis and necrosis analysis. Green arrow indicated the normal cell, yellow arrow indicated the apoptotic cell and red arrow indicated the necrotic cell. The apoptotic cell number and necrotic cell number were analyzed by ImageJ, all data were presented as mean ± SD (n = 3), p* < 0.01 versus control; p# < 0.01 versus IL-1β. e: apoptotic cells percentage, f: necrotic cells percentage. Caspase-3 expression was determined by qRT-PCR. g: caspase-3 expression. Gene expression data were analyzed by using the 2^-ΔΔCT method. All qRT-PCR results were presented as mean ± SD (n = 9); p* < 0.01 versus control; p# < 0.01 versus IL-1β