Fig. 3

3D culture reduces cell volume. Representative microscopic images of hUC-MSCs cultured in (A) 2D, (B) 3D for 24 h, (C) 3D for 48 h, and (D) 3D for 72 h, scale bar = 100 μm. (E) The diameters of hUC-MSCs under various culture environment were calculated using ImageJ. (F) The differentiation ability of 2D-cultured hUC-MSCs. Alizarin red staining shows calcium content and Oil Red O staining shows lipid droplets in cells. (G) The lineage differentiation potential of 3D-cultured hUC-MSCs. The higher resolution figure are available in the supplementary materials. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; ****, p < 0.0001; ns, not significant, p > 0.05