Fig. 5.

Disease progression after IA injection of CD146⁺ and CD146^– cells. The arthritis sign was determined as severe swelling (arthritis score = 3). IA injection of 10⁶ cells or saline control was administered to the joints of the hind paw of CIA mice. The arthritis sign and the clinical scores after IA injection of stem cells a. Populations of Treg and Th17 cells in CIA mice 14 days after IA injection b. Quantitative data for Treg and Th17 cells c. Serum IL-17A concentration 14 days after IA injection d. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM for five mice. *P <0.05 for the MSC-injected group compared with the saline control, #P <0.05 for the CD146⁺ cell-injected group compared with the CD146^– cell-injected group, **P <0.01, ***P ≤0.001, ^## P <0.01. CIA collagen-induced arthritis, IA intra-articular, IL interleukin, TH17 T-helper type 17, Treg regulatory T