Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 7 pp 10517—10534

Figure 7. BMSC-CCM treatment promoted collagen content in the middle urethra and adjacent AVW tissues of VD rats. (A, D) Masson’s tricolor staining of the middle urethra and adjacent AVW tissues collected from rats. Collagen fibers were stained blue. The images were magnified 40× (scale bar = 200 μm) and 200× (scale bar = 40 μm). (B, E) IHC showing collagen III (stained brownish yellow) expression in tissues (scale bar = 200 μm). (C, F) The expression of desmin and collagen I was determined by western blotting, and the relative collagen I expression (vs. GAPDH) was analyzed. Data are shown as the means ± standard deviation (SD). ^*P < 0.05; ^**P < 0.01; ^***P < 0.001. BMSC-CCM, bone marrow stem cell-concentrated conditioned medium; VD, vaginal distention; EUS, external urethral sphincter; AVW, anterior vaginal wall; USM, urethral smooth muscle; VD + C, VD + control medium group; VD + CCM, VD + BMSC-CCM group.