Figure 5.

Intra-articular HA-DOX hydrogel injections reduced the attenuated microscopic appearance of tibial plateau in OA. Histological examinations of hematoxylin and eosin stained sections of the cartilage in the tibial plateau at 150X (left panels) and 300X (right panels) magnifications. The samples from the NT (A), HA (B), DOX (C), and HA-DOX hydrogel groups (D) were processed separately. The normal-young group (13-week-old rabbits) (E) and the normal-old group (40-week-old rabbits) (F) did not receive intra-articular treatments. The various features of OA pathology were scored on a scale of 0 to 4, with 4 representing OA lesions of the worst possible severity (G), as described in the Materials and methods. The results were compared to evaluate differences between the NT group (p < 0.05, a); the DOX group (p < 0.05, b); and the HA group (p < 0.05, c).