Fig. 1

Effect of anethole on cytotoxicity and proliferation in hMSCs. a The structure of anethole (1-methoxy-4-(1-propenyl) benzene). b Cells were seeded onto a 96-well plate at a density of 5000 cell/well, and were treated at various concetrations (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 μM) for 24 h. The cell viability was calculated as a percentage of viable cells in anethole-treated group vesus the untreated control. c For the proliferation assay, every step was performed as described previously and assessment was made at days 2, 4, and 6 post anethole treatment. Each experiment was repeated three times and the values are presented as mean ± S.D. d hMSCs were incubated in adipogenic differentiation media for 4 weeks in presence or absense of 50 μM anethole. Cells were fixed with 4% formaldehyde and stained with 0.5% Oil Red O staining solution at first day of each week for 4 weeks and phostographed by microscopy. e The stained-lipid accumulation was measured by dissoloving the cell contents in isopropanol and reading their absorbace at 405 nm by a microplate reader. Each experiment was repeated four times and the values are presented as mean ± S.D. *p < 0.1, **p < 0.05, and ***p < 0.001