Table 2.

Oligonucleotide Primers Used for RT-PCR, Including Annealing Temperatures and Size of the Amplified Products

Gene	Primer	Annealing temperature (°C)	Product size (bp)
Sheep COL1A1	Forward: AGG GAC CCA AAG GAG ACA CT	55	198
	Reverse: GCA CGG AAA TTC CTG TTG AT
Sheep COL2A1	Forward: CGT CAC CTA CCA CTG CAA GA	58	219
	Reverse: GGG AGA CGT GAG GTC TTC TG
Sheep COL3A1	Forward: CTT TTC GCT CTG CTT CAT CC	55	216
	Reverse: TTC TCC AAA CGG GAT TTC AG
Sheep VCAN	Forward: CCTGTTGTAGAAAATGCCAAGACC	58	344
	Reverse: GTTAGGACTTTGGCTGAAATGATGA
GAPDH	Forward: CTC ACT GGC ATG GCC TTC CG	55	293
	Reverse: ACC ACC CTG TTG CTG TAG CC

COL1A1, collagen type I; COL2A1, collagen type II; COL3A1, collagen type III; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; RT-PCR, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; VCAN, versican.