Fig. 4.

RUNX2 deteriorated childhood-onset OA chondrocyte injury in vitro. Childhood-onset OA chondrocytes were transfected with pcDNA4.0-RUNX2, pcDNA4.0, si-RUNX2, or si-NC for 48 h. (A) Cell viability was analyzed in transfected chondrocytes by CCK-8 assay. (B–C) The concentration of IL-6 and TNF-α in the supernatants of transfected chondrocytes was determined by ELISA assay. (D) Cell apoptosis was detected in transfected chondrocytes by flow cytometry. (E) The protein levels of RUNX2, caspase-3, Bcl-2, COL2A1 and MMP-13 were detected in transfected chondrocytes by western blot analysis. All data were presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001, compared with pcDNA4.0; ^# p<0.05, ^## p<0.01, ^### p<0.001, compared with si-NC.