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. 2015 Oct 5;5:14711. doi: 10.1038/srep14711

Figure 3. Effect of prenatal ethanol or dexamethasone (DEX) exposure on body weight, serum corticosterone and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels and histological changes in articular cartilage in female fetal rats.

Figure 3

(a) Safranin O/fast green staining of the knee joint (100×); (b) Safranin O/fast green staining of the tibial articulating superficial zone (400×). Ethanol and DEX exposure resulted in a thin layer of articular cartilage (black arrowheads) and histological gaps (yellow arrows); (c) Cell count within the knee joint cartilage area; (d) Mean optical density (MOD) of the proteoglycan content in the tibial articulating superficial zone; (e) Body weight; (f) Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) rates; (g) Serum corticosterone concentrations; (h) Serum IGF-1 concentrations (n = 5 litters from 8 pregnant rats). Mean ± S.E.M.; n = 5 offspring from 8 pregnant rats. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. control.