Zinc enhances the cell adhesion, migration, and self-renewal potential of human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells

Figure 3 Cytotoxic analysis of ZnCl₂ for human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells. A: Concentrations of ZnCl₂ 5 µM, 10 µM, 20 µM, 30 µM, 50 µM, 100 µM, 250 µM, and 500 µM_, were analyzed for their cytotoxicity by MTT assay. Concentrations from 5 µM to 100 µM did not show any significant decrease in viability (Percent) of human umbilical cord (hUC)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) compared to control. 250 µM reflected IC₅₀ value of ZnCl_2, and both 250 µM and 500 µM concentrations were found to be significantly (^cP ≤ 0.001) cytotoxic. Results were analyzed by performing one-way ANOVA and Post-Hoc Bonferroni test; B: Alamar blue assay analysis of hUC-MSCs after 24 h after ZnCl₂ did not exhibit any significant difference between control and test groups. But after 48 and 72 h, the proliferation of MSCs was significantly increased (^aP ≤ 0.05, ^bP ≤ 0.01) in all test groups. For further experiments, 20 µM of ZnCl₂ was selected as the test group concentration. C: Test group 20 µM ZnCl₂ exhibited significantly higher (^bP ≤ 0.01) NPD i.e., 2.9 ± 0.14, as compared to the control group, which showed 1.9 ± 0.18. Significantly reduced (^aP ≤ 0.05) D: PDT was observed in the test group i.e., approximately 3 d ± 0.16 in contrast to the control group having population doubling time of 5 ± 0.46 d. Results were analyzed by independent sample t-Test. Data is presented as mean ± SD (n = 3) where the significance level is ^aP ≤ 0.05. NS: Not significant.