Figure 4.

Increasing histological evidence for articular degeneration after both anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) and arthrotomy was evident at 12 weeks. At 6 weeks, more extensive articular cartilage degeneration was seen in ACLT animals compared to sham (arthrotomy alone), indicated by higher total modified Mankin scores (A), greater loss of glycosaminoglycans by toluidine blue scores (B), and more matrix disruption by David-Vaudy scoring (C). However, at 12 weeks, all histological scores trended higher for the sham-surgery group, and no statistical differences between the scores for the ACLT and sham surgery groups were observed (*P < 0.05, ^#P ~ 0.05).