The effect of MSC on TGF-β1 secretion.

<p>The concentration of (<b>A</b>) total and (<b>B</b>) active TGF-β1 secretion in conditioned media collected from untreated HCE-T monocultures, MSC monocultures and HCE-T/MSC co-cultures, or HCE-T monocultures, MSC monocultures and HCE-T/MSC co-cultured with IFN-γ/TNF stimulation for 24 h and 48 h was measured by ELISA. (<b>A</b>) A similar level of TGF-β1 was detected from untreated HCE-T monocultures and HCE-T/MSC co-cultures. IFN-γ/TNF-stimulated HCE-T/MSC co-culture showed increased total TGF-β1 from HCE-Ts at 24 h (p = 0.052), and significantly increased at 48 h (P&lt;0.01). (<b>B</b>) IFN-γ/TNF treatment significantly increased active TGF-β1 secretion from HCE-T (p&lt;0.01) and MSC (p&lt;0.05) monocultures at 48 h. Compared to untreated monocultures, IFN-γ/TNF-stimulated HCE-T/MSC co-culture showed a significant increase in active TGF-β1 after 48 h, (p&lt;0.05). Data represents the results from three individual experiments (n = 3) ±SEM. *: p&lt;0.05, **: p&lt;0.01. The “+” or “−“ symbol denotes the presence or absence of the denoted treatment or cell type at the left.