Fig 2: Differential gene and functional enrichment analysis of UCMSCs after CTGF induction at different induction time periods: (a) volcanic plot of differentially expressed genes at different time periods compared to 0 days, (b) intersection analysis of up-regulated genes in three comparison groups, (c) GO enrichment bubble plots compared to 0 days at different time periods, (d) KEGG upregulated enrichment bubble plot compared to 0 days at different time periods, and (e) mRNA expression of Hes1 detected by qPCR. ***p < 0.001 compared with the 0 day.

Fig 3: Analysis of the induction effect of BMP-12, GDF-7, and CTGF on the differentiation of UCMSCs: (a) morphological changes of UCMSCs after induction treatment, (b) mRNA expression of MKX, SCX, and TNC detected by qPCR, (c) bands and protein expression of MKX, SCX, and TNC detected by WB, and (d) COL-I and COL-III expression detected by immunofluorescence (400×). **p < 0.01 and *** p < 0.001 compared with the control group.

Fig 4: Single cell sequencing analysis of UCMSCs after CTGF induction at different induction time periods: (a) cell fractionation tSNE visualization, (b) cell type tSNE visualization, (c) cell type tSNE visualization at different time periods, (d) proportion chart of different cell types at different time periods, and (e) proposed time series analysis. Attachment cells: attachment cells play a crucial role in the early stage of cell culture. By coming into contact with the basement membrane or the surface of the culture medium, they facilitate cell attachment, migration, and expansion; stem cells: stem cells have the potential for self-renewal and multi-directional differentiation, enabling them to differentiate into various cell types; tendon cells: tendon cells are specialized connective tissue cells, mainly responsible for the formation and maintenance of tendons.

Fig 5: Analysis of the induction effect of CTGF on the differentiation of UCMSCs at different induction time periods: (a) mRNA expression of MKX, SCX, and TNC detected by qPCR, (b) bands and protein expression of MKX, SCX, and TNC detected by WB, and (c) COL-I and COL-III expression detected by Immunofluorescence (400×). ***p < 0.001 and *p < 0.05 compared with the 0 day.