Fig. 5.

Regeneration of rabbit cartilage after thermal injury. (A) Confocal images of live/dead assay show that chondrocytes exhibited necrotic changes immediately after laser irradiation, irrespective of laser power. The chondrocytes in 0.3 W and 0.5 W treatment group regenerated completely and those in 0.3 W treatment group showed earlier regeneration. Chondrocytes in 1 W treatment group could not regenerate until 4 weeks after reimplantation. (B) Change of live/dead chondrocyte proportion in irradiated rabbit after reimplantation. (C) Histologic cross sections of laser-irradiated specimens of rabbit cartilage revealed loss of chondrocytes and condensation of nucleus (H&E, ×200).