Fig. 5.

In vivo implants of Diffusion Chambers (DC) in young tnfsf11 knockout (KO) mice. (A) DCs containing primary calvarial osteoblasts implanted in a 1 month-old WT mice and harvested after 3 weeks. Cytochemical staining for the osteoblast-specific marker alkaline phosphatase (Bar = 1 mm). (B) Body weight expressed in grams (gr) of wild type (WT) and tnfsf11 knockout mice treated with PBS (KO) or implanted at the age of 21 days (arrow) with one DC containing primary calvarial osteoblasts on MMP14-functionalized 3D HA scaffold (KO + DC). (C, D) Histological sections of proximal tibia histochemically stained for the Tartrate-Resistant Acid Phosphatase (TRAcP), showing (C) no TRAcP-positive cells in a non-implanted KO mouse and (D) small TRAcP-positive cells (arrows) in a KO mouse implanted for 1 month with a DC containing primary calvarial osteoblasts on functionalized 3D HA scaffold (Bar = 50 μm). Results are representative (A, C, D) or (B) the mean ± s.d or three mice per group. Statistics: one-way ANOVA. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)