To determine the immunophenotypic profile of MSC-MVs, 1 μm of standard microbeads (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) were added to the MSC-MV samples. All samples were stained with Calcein-AM (Sigma), which was used to define the MSC-MVs with intact membrane structure. Subsequently, phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled anti-CD29, CD44, CD73, CD90, CD105, CD34, CD45 and IgG isotype control (BD Biosciences) were incubated with MSC-MV samples for 30 min at 4ºC. After washing in PBS for three times, MSC-MV samples were analyzed by FCM.
For cell cycle analysis, MSCs were trypsinized, centrifuged and washed for three times in PBS. Cells were then resuspended and fixed in 70% ethanol at 4ºC overnight. Fixed cells were washed at 500g for 5 min and stained with 10 μg/ml PI, 100 μg/ml DNase-free RNase A, 0.1% Triton X-100 and kept in the dark for 30 min. Cell suspensions were filtered and measured by FCM.