Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells alleviate liver fibrosis in rats

Figure 5 Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells promote polarization of KCs in vitro. We isolated Kupffer cells (KCs) from rats treated with DMN for three consecutive weeks, and co-cultured them with umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs). KCs isolated from the same rats and cultured alone were set as the control group. Less than 4% of CD206 positive M2 cells appeared in KCs cultured alone; whereas, more than 80% M2 cells appeared in KCs co-cultured with UC-MSCs (A). Given the anti-fibrogenic effect of M2 cells, and the M1 cells’ pro-fibrogenic effect, our data showed that UC-MSCs promoted KC polarization in vitro.