Fig. 3

The relative expression level of transcripts in stem cells and fibroblasts derived from the two different tissues with and without stimulation with LPS (n = 3). a Transcripts of the interleukin family (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8). All transcripts are significantly increased in ME-CSCs compared to ACSCs with or without stimulation with LPS. Additionally, the expression was heavily increased in stimulated ME-CFs in relation to ME-CSCs (IL-1α) but massively decreased in ME-CFs relative to ME-CSCs (IL-8). b Upon stimulation with LPS, three other modulators of Immune response (TNF-a, GM-CSF and CXCL-5) exhibited an significant increase in ME-CSCs and ME-CFs compared to ACSCs and ACFs, respectively. Furthermore, the transcription of all transcripts was elevated for ME-CFs in relation to ME-CSCs in the case of GMCSF and CXCL-5. c Intriguingly, the expression of all investigated growth factors (KGF, EGF, EREG, IGF-2 and HGF) was significantly increased in ME-CFs and ACFs (with exception of HGF). The expression of EREG was elevated in ME-CSCs compared to ACSCs while EGF, HGF and IGF-2 were increased in ME-CFs in relation to ACFs. (Depicted: mean and standard deviation; statistics between cell types: one tailed Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test, statistics between tissue of origin: one tailed Mann–Whitney-U both with 95% confidence interval,*≤ 0.05, **≤ 0.01, ***≤ 0.001, ****≤ 0.0001)