Fig. 4

miR-21a mediates the effects of exosomes on neuronal differentiation. (a) A schematic representation of the experimental approach (left panel). The overexpression of miR-21a in iEXOs and EXOs was examined by qPCR analyses (right panel). (b) NPCs were co-cultured with control or miR-21a overexpressed exosomes for 7 DIV in differentiation conditions. Representative images of Tuj1 (green), GFAP (red) and DAPI (blue) staining were shown. (c) Quantification of Tuj1⁺ and GFAP⁺ cells (as a percentage of total cells) in the culture. (d) The transcript expression of β-tubulin and GFAP in differentiated NPCs after co-culturing with control or miR-21a overexpressed exosomes was determined by qPCR analysis. MC, mimics control. Data were represented as mean ± SD from three independent experiments. *** and **** denote p < 0.001 and p < 0.0001, respectively. n.s. denotes no significance. Scale bar 100 μm (b)