Fig. 6. Effect of prunetin on production of MMP-3 in vivo.

The knee joint of rats were pretreated with 50 or 100 µM of prunetin for 3 h and then stimulated with IL-1β (20 ng/30 µL) for 72 h, by intraarticular injection. Tissue lysates from articular cartilage homogenates containing MMP-3 proteins were collected for measurement of the level of produced MMP-3 in vivo, by western blot analysis. The representative data were shown. Equal protein loading was evaluated by β-actin levels. The signal intensity of each band was analyzed by GelQuant software (DNR Bio-Imaging Systems Ltd., Jerusalem, Israel). Each bar represents a mean±S.E.M. of three independent experiments in comparison with that of the control set at 100%. ^*significantly different from control (p<0.05), ⁺significantly different from IL-1β alone (p<0.05) (cont: control, concentration unit is µM).