FIG. 6.

Analysis of the expression of relevant cartilaginous markers at transcriptional level from porcine chondrocytes in PTCC samples, adopting alginate hydrogels for distinguishing between aggregated cell islets and individual cells in bulk, by quantitative real-time PCR (n = 3). The values represent the levels of expression relative to that of two internal control genes (HPRT and RPL4). Black: mixed cells at the initial stage (n = 3); gray: aggregated cell islets (n = 3); white: cells in gel bulk (n = 3). The values represent the means ± standard deviations. The selected time points of analysis are at 4 (initial stage), 16, 24, and 32 days, respectively. *Differences between different constructs at the same culture time are not significant (p > 0.05); **differences between different constructs at the same culture time are significant (p < 0.05).