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. 2016 Mar 7;7:10872. doi: 10.1038/ncomms10872

Figure 9. Osteoclast-targeted antagomiR-214-3p treatment promotes bone formation in ageing OVX mice.

Figure 9

(a) A schematic diagram illustrating the experimental design. The female C57BL/6 mice were either ovariectomized or Sham operated at 6-month-old, and left untreated for 6 months. At 12-month-old, the OVX mice received eight consecutive intravenous injections with either PBS (OVX), (D-Asp)8-liposome (vehicle) alone (OVX+Veh), (D-Asp)8-liposome-antagomir nonsense control (OVX+NC) or (D-Asp)8-liposome-antagomir-214-3p (OVX+AMO), whereas the Sham mice received eight consecutive intravenous injections with PBS (Sham), at a weekly interval and killed 8 weeks after the first injection. Another group of OVX mice were killed at 12-month-old before treatment initiation as baseline (OVX-BS). (b) Real–time PCR analysis of the miR-214-3p levels in CTSK+ cells (Osteoclasts) and ALP+ cells (osteoblasts) isolated from cryosections of femur by laser-captured microdissection from the mice in each group. (c) Representative micro-CT images of the distal femur metaphysis from the mice in each group. Scale bars, 1 mm. (d) The values of micro-CT parameters (BMD, BV/TV, Tb.Th and Tb.N) at the distal femur metaphysis from the mice in each group. (e) Representative images of new bone formation assessed by double labelling with calcein green and xylenol orange at the distal femur metaphysis from the mice in each group. Scale bars, 10 μm. (f) The values of bone histomorphometry parameters (MAR, BFR/BS) at the distal femur metaphysis from the mice in each group. The n value for each group is indicated at the top/bottom of each histogram. All data are the mean±s.d. *P<0.05. One-way ANOVA with a post-hoc test was performed.