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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2015 Jun 25;23(12):2242–2251. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2015.06.009

Fig. 1. Gross and histologic appearances of normal and degenerative FJs.

Fig. 1

A, Anatomical structure of human lumbar FJ and preparation of inferior articular process in lumbar FJ. B, Gross appearances of FJs and FJC tissues. Each FJ was assigned a representative grade for the appearance of the inferior facet. The higher graded FJ samples demonstrates an increase in the size of edge osteophytes, reactive bone, and cartilage eburnation. C, Safranin O, D, Alcian Blue Hematoxylin/Orange G, and E, Hematoxylin & Eosin staining of FJ cartilage show severe depletion of proteoglycan, fibrillation, structural and morphological changes in degenerative FJs (G4) compared to normal FJs (G0). The results represent donor number of at least n=3 for G0 and n=6 for each grades, G2–4.