NANOG Attenuates Hair Follicle-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell Senescence by Upregulating PBX1 and Activating AKT Signaling

Figure 6

NANOG upregulates the expression of PBX1, while ectopic NANOG expression with PBX1 shRNA downregulates the phosphorylation of AKT. (a, b) Western blotting shows that ectopic NANOG expression upregulates PBX1 (). (c) After 36 h of plasmid transfection (PBX1 promoter pGL3-Basic vector and pRL-TK vector), dual luciferase assays were performed, and luciferase activities (relative light units) were measured in comparison to those of the vector control group (). (d) Hair follicle-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HF-MSCs) ectopically expressing NANOG were treated with PBX1 shRNA. Western blotting shows that PBX1 shRNA downregulated p-AKT and increased the expression of p16 and p21. (e) Differences in the expression of p16, p21, and p-AKT, but not p53, were statistically significant. (f) Senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining was used to examine cellular senescence. Scale (, , ).

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