Fig. 3

SC MSC injection expands IL-10-producing MerTK⁺ macrophages in the LN. (A) C57BL/6 mice were SC-injected with 30 ng LPS in 50 µl PBS in the left hock, and 4 h later 1 × 10⁶ human adipose MSCs in the same hock. Draining (dLN; white bar) and non-draining LNs (ndLN; shaded bar) were harvested 20 h after MSC injection for analysis. (B) Representative flow cytometry plots showing the gating strategies for delineating myeloid and lymphoid populations in the mouse LNs. (C) Changes in total cellularity and cell number of different immune populations in LNs following SC MSC injection. Data expressed as mean ± SEM; n = 4–5 mice per group, representative of 2 independent experiments. One-way ANOVA, Tukey’s multiple comparison, comparing UNT, LPS and MSC dLNs; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, ns, not significant. (D) Changes in cell number of different LN-resident macrophage subpopulations following MSC treatment. (E) Representative flow cytometry plots showing the identification of IL-10⁺ populations in LN macrophage subpopulations. (F) Changes in IL-10⁺ populations in LN macrophage subpopulations after LPS and SC MSC injection. Data expressed as mean ± SEM; n = 5 mice per group, representative of 2 independent experiments. One-way ANOVA, Tukey’s multiple comparison, comparing UNT, LPS and MSC dLNs; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, ns, not significant