Fig. 4.

(A), Representative histological images of the surgical lumbar fusion site in all treated groups at 3 weeks after surgery stained with HE and Goldner's trichrome and the corresponding quantification of (B) new bone area and (C) non-tissue area (including areas of remaining biomaterial and cavities). I: implant (blue dotted lines: residual, unresorbed material), B: new bone, C: cartilage, F: fibrous tissue, M: muscle tissue, stars (*) indicate cavities (black dotted lines). The black and blue rectangle areas of the overview images indicate the end (left high magnification images) and middle (right high magnification images) regions of the scaffolds, respectively. Overview images scale bars = 1000 μm and high magnification scale bars = 100 μm. Data are presented as means ± SD. *p < 0.05.