Table 1. Number and degree of fusion after different treatments.

DOFa	Number of palatal shelves at different position
	24 hrs after infection (n = 15)				48 hrs after infection (n = 8)
	shLuc	shIrf6	TGFβ3	shIrf6 + TGFβ3	shLuc	shIrf6	TGFβ3	shIrf6 + TGFβ3
Anterior
0–25%	15	15	0	12	0	0	0	0
25–50%	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0
50–75%	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
75–100%	0	0	13	0	8	8	8	8
Middle
0–25%	13	13	0	12	0	0	0	0
25–50%	2	2	0	3	0	0	0	0
50–75%	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1
75–100%	0	0	13	0	8	8	8	7
Posterior
0–25%	13	15	0	13	0	0	0	0
25–50%	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
50–75%	0	0	4	1	0	0	0	0
75–100%	0	0	11	0	8	8	8	8
Average of DOF	9.3 ± 8.1%	9.0 ± 7.3%	84.9 ± 9.8%	16.3 ± 10.2%*	90.4 ± 5.3%	89.2 ± 5.0%	91 ± 5.2%	88.8 ± 5.2%

^aDOF, Degree of fusion.

^*Significant difference between TGFβ3 and shIrf6 + TGFβ3 at 24 hrs after infection was analyzed by t-test (p < 0.001).