FIG. 2.
LPS-mediated inflammation inhibits bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2)-induced osteoblast differentiation of BMSCs. (A) BMSCs were treated with BMP-2 in the presence or absence of LPS, ALP staining assay of alkaline phosphatase (ALPase) activity on day 7 (A, left), and Alizarin Red staining assay of calcium deposition on day 21 (A, right). (B) BMSCs were treated with BMP-2 in the presence or absence of LPS in a time-course experiment. Quantification assay of ALPase activity, normalized with total protein. (C) BMSCs were treated with BMP-2 in the presence or absence of LPS for 48 h, real-time PCR, and relative quantification of ALP, COL1A1, OCN, OPN, Runx2 and Osterix, normalized versus GAPDH. Each bar represents the mean±SD of three independent experiments. *P<0.05 and **P<0.01 compared with the untreated cells. Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/scd