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

Figure 7 Protein expression of Lin28 and transcriptional analysis of pluripotency genes. A: Positive expression of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) specific marker Lin28 was observed after 12 h, 24 h,48 h, and 72 h of 20 µM ZnCl₂ treatment, as visualized by immunocytochemical staining; B: Quantified fluorescent intensities showed that 20 µM ZnCl₂ treated MSCs expressed Lin28 protein (^cP ≤ 0.001); C: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of pluripotency genes OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG, exhibited significantly increased (^aP ≤ 0.05) expression of OCT4 at 12, 24, 48, and 72 h, while SOX2, and NANOG showed significantly increased expression at 24 and 48 h (^aP ≤ 0.05, ^bp ≤ 0.01). Results were analyzed by SPSS, performing an independent sample t-test. Data were analyzed as mean ± SD (n = 3) where significance level ^aP ≤ 0.05.