1. Volume 26, Issue 1, Pages 199-207 (January 2018)
Antimicrobial Peptide Combined with BMP2-Modified Mesenchymal Stem Cells Promotes Calvarial Repair in an Osteolytic Model 
Zunpeng Liu, Xue Yuan, Min Liu, Gabriela Fernandes, Yejia Zhang, Shuting Yang, Ciprian N. Ionita, Shuying Yang 
Molecular Therapy 
Volume 26, Issue 1, Pages (January 2018)
DOI: /j.ymthe
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions

2. Figure 1
LL37 Promotes Proliferation, Osteogenic Differentiation, and Mineralization of MSCs
(A) Cell proliferation activity of MSCs with LL37 (5 or 10 μg/mL) at a cell seeding density of 5 × 103 per well in a 96-well plate (n = 6). **p < (B) Cell proliferation activity of mMSC, mMSC/B2, mMSC+LL37, and mMSC/B2+LL37 at day 7 (n = 6). **p < (C) ALP activity of MSCs with LL37 (5 or 10 μg/mL) treatment (n = 3). The cells were induced with osteogenic media for 7 days. *p < 0.05; **p < (D) Alizarin red staining of mMSC, mMSC/B2, mMSC+LL37, and mMSC/B2+LL37. Cells were cultured in osteogenic medium for 14 days. (E) Quantitative analysis of cell mineralization shown in (D) (n = 3). *p < 0.05.
Molecular Therapy  , DOI: ( /j.ymthe )
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions

3. Figure 2 LL37 Promotes MSC Migration
(A) Giemsa staining of cells (purple) that migrated through a transwell membrane pore (8 μm, black circle) in response to a different concentration of LL37. (B) The calculated migration cell number is shown in (A). **p < 0.01; ***p <
Molecular Therapy  , DOI: ( /j.ymthe )
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions

4. Figure 3
LL37 Shows Anti-bacterial Activity and Inhibits LPS-Induced Osteoclast Formation
(A) TRAP staining of the osteoclast formation by M-CSF/RANKL (RANKL) or M-CSF/LPS (LPS), as indicated. LL37 was added to the culture at 5 μg/mL (5) or 10 μg/mL (10). (B) Quantification of TRAP+ MNCs shown in (A) (n = 3). **p < (C) Photographs of disk diffusion assay showing the inhibition zones of E. coli treated with LL37. Positive control is penicillin-streptomycin solution, and negative control is PBS. (D) Measurement of the diameter of inhibition zone in (C). n = 3. **p < 0.01.
Molecular Therapy  , DOI: ( /j.ymthe )
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions

5. Figure 4
LL37 with BMP2-Modified MSCs Protects against LPS-Induced Osteolysis
(A) Schematic of LPS-induced osteolysis and treatment for each group. (B) Representative images showing calvarial bone harvested from each group. Red dot box is the ROI for Micro-CT quantitative analysis. (C) Representative coronal MicroCT image of each group. (D) Quantitative analysis of the ratio of newly formed bone volume (BV) to total volume (TV). Newly formed bone volume = total bone volume from each group at 3 weeks − bone volume from the LPS-injected group at day 5. ***p < for the mMSC/B2+LL37 group versus each of the other groups.
Molecular Therapy  , DOI: ( /j.ymthe )
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions

6. Figure 5
Histological Evaluation of Newly Formed Bone in LPS-Induced Osteolysis
(A) H&E staining of calvarial bone for the analysis of new bone formation. The sagittal section through the midline of defects is shown. Lower magnification, scale bar (black), 150 μm; higher magnification, scale bar (blue), 30 μm. (B) Quantitative analysis of relative bone thickness shown in (A) (n = 3). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < ; ns, not statistically significant. (C) Quantitative analysis of relative bone surface shown in (A). **p < 0.01; ***p < ; ns, not statistically significant.
Molecular Therapy  , DOI: ( /j.ymthe )
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions

7. Figure 6 Section of Calvarial Bone Stained with Antibody against VWF
(A) Representative images from each group. Scale bar, 100 μm. (B) Quantitative analysis of relative staining area per bone area (%) in (A) (n = 3). *p < 0.05; ns, not statistically significant.
Molecular Therapy  , DOI: ( /j.ymthe )
Copyright © 2017 The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Terms and Conditions