Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 8 pp 12031—12045

Figure 6. Functional activities of BMSCs, osteoblasts and osteocytes in aged rats compared to young rats. (A) Comparison of osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation ability of BMSCs between aged rats and young rats. BMSCs were cultured in osteogenic induction medium for 21 days, and alizarin red staining was performed. BMSCs were stained with oil red O after 14 days of culture in adipogenic induction medium, and the red drops in the figure were lipid droplets; (B) Determination of bone formation protein and statistics of protein relative expression in osteoblasts of aged rats and young rats (x¯±s,n=3); (C) Alizarin red staining and alkaline phosphatase staining of osteoblasts from aged rats and young rats; (D) The activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in osteoblasts from old rats and young rats was measured (x¯±s,n=6); (E) The determination of sclerosteosis and the statistics of relative protein expression in osteocytes from old rats and young rats (x¯±s,n=3); *P < 0.05 vs. young female rats, **P < 0.01 vs. young female rats, ^#P < 0.05 vs. young male rats, ^##P < 0.01 vs. young male rats.