Focal adhesion kinase expression in wtMSCs and stMSCs in response to SDF-1α.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Circulating SDF-1α concentrations in plasma collected from mice transplanted with wtMSC, wtMSC^Shh, stMSCs^vect or stMSCs^ShhKO treated with rmIFNγ for 21 days<b>.</b> (<b>B</b>) Migration assay using stMSC^vect and stMSC^ShhKO cells in response to chemokine SDF-1α at concentrations between 0 to 200 ng/ml. *P<0.05 compared to stMSC^ShhKO cells, n = 3 expts. F-actin re-organization in stMSC^vect and stMSC^ShhKO cells in response to SDF-1α. Immunofluorescence using an antibody specific for F-actin (Alexa Fluor 488, green) and nuclear marker (TO-PRO 633, red) of (<b>C, E</b>) stMSC^vect and (<b>D, F</b>) stMSC^ShhKO cells treated with SDF-1α. Arrows in <b>E</b> show actin stress fibers in stMSC^vect cells in response to SDF-1α. Immunoblots of FAK and paxillin protein expression in (<b>G</b>) stMSC^vect, (<b>H</b>) stMSC^ShhKO, (<b>I</b>) wtMSC and (<b>J</b>) wtMSC^Shh cells treated with SDF-1α. Images captured at 40× magnification. Scale bar = 10 microns.