Figure 5.

Effect of IL-4 or IL-4/prednisolone treatment on matrix proteoglycan loss. (a) Knee joint of a control naïve mouse. The fully stained cartilage layers indicate no loss of proteoglycans. (b) Knee joint of an arthritic mouse treated with vehicle. Note the severe joint inflammation and complete loss of safranin O staining of the cartilage layers (indicated by arrows). (c) Mouse treated with IL-4 (1 μg/day). Loss of matrix proteoglycan can still be seen. (d) Knee joint of a mouse treated with IL-4/prednisolone (1 μg per day/0.05 mg per kg). Marked reduction in matrix proteoglycan depletion after combined treatment. For details see Fig. 4. Safranin O staining, original magnification × 100.