Figure 6. Effects of estrogen receptor beta on Col11a1-Mmp3 signaling axis.

a) Representative Western blot (of N=4 biologic replicates) of cultured costal chondrocytes after scramble or Col11a1-specific siRNA knockdown. Protein size ladder is shown in lane 1. Quantification of bands detected by Western blotting are shown at right, where scramble results were set to 1.0. Values are mean after normalization to GAPDH, ± standard deviation.

b) Gene expression levels of Col11a1 (left), Mmp3 (middle), and Esr2 (right) mRNA in cultured costal chondrocytes showing fold change relative to the scramble control. dKD = double Col11a1-Esr2-specific siRNA knockdowns. Each value represents the ratio of each gene expression to that of GAPDH, and values are mean ± standard deviation. Results are representative of N≥3 biologic replicates, each including 3 technical replicates.

c) Gene expression levels from rat CEP cells, as described in (b).