Quantification of fusion events between MSC and epithelial cells by flow cytometry analysis.

For direct coculture, eGFP or DsRED MSC (PM7) cells were cultured with epithelial (DsRED AGS, eGFP HFE-145 and DsRED HT-29) cells for 8 days, harvested, stained with anti-ESA antibodies, detected by Alexa-647 labelled secondary antibodies. For indirect coculture, PM7 and epithelial cells (AGS) were separated by a 0.4 µm cell culture insert and processed as for direct coculture. Cells were then analyzed by flow cytometry. Results represent the mean ± SD of one experiment with three replicates representative of at least three different experiments.