Bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells reduce rat intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury, ZO-1 downregulation and tight junction disruption via a TNF-α-regulated mechanism

Figure 7 Bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells attenuate zona occludens 1 downregulation after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury. Representative western blots and quantification of zona occludens 1 (ZO-1) protein expression in the intestinal mucosa. ZO-1 expression was significantly lower in the saline (NS) + ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury group than the bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM MSCs) + I/R injury group at 6 h (25.35 ± 4.58% vs 42.32 ± 1.26%; P < 0.01). Actin was used as a loading control. Values are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 3 rats per group); ^bP < 0.01 BM MSCs +I/R injury group vs the NS + I/R injury group [one-way ANOVA followed by the least significant difference (LSD) test].