Hepatocyte growth factor enhances the ability of dental pulp stem cells to ameliorate atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-knockout mice

Figure 1 Ad-Null and Ad-hepatocyte growth factor modified dental pulp stem cells treatments alleviated atherosclerotic lesions in apolipoprotein E-knockout mice. A: Representative images of oil Red O-stained aortas; B: Atherosclerotic plaque areas are expressed as the ratio of oil Red O-stained areas to total aortic areas (n = 3); C: Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stained sections showing the plaque size in the aortic lumen (scale bar = 100 μm); D: Representative images of aortic arch sections stained with an anti-mCD80 antibody (scale bar = 100 μm); E: The CD80-positive areas in the aortic tissues are expressed as the ratios of positively stained cells to total cells (n = 3); F: Representative images of intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in atherosclerotic lesions of the aortic arch (scale bar = 50 μm); G: The ICAM-1 expression levels are shown as the ratios of positively stained cells to total endothelial cells (n = 3). All results are presented as the means ± SEMs; ^bP < 0.01, ^cP < 0.001 vs. the normal fat diet group; ^dP < 0.05, ^eP < 0.01, ^fP < 0.001 vs. the high-fat diet group; ^gP < 0.05 vs. the Ad-Null modified dental pulp stem cells group. DPSC-HGF: Ad-hepatocyte growth factor modified dental pulp stem cells; HFD: High-fat diet; NFD: Normal formula diet; DPSC: Dental pulp stem cell.