Figure 1.

Histological evaluation of rabbit knee joint cartilage stained with haematoxylin and eosin. (a) Normal group showing the chondrocytes were arranged in a straight line and located centrally within its lacunae. These chondrocytes showed centrally located nuclei, fine granular cytoplasm that contains few discrete vacuoles, and were surrounded by extracellular matrix. (b) AIA group: the chondrocytes (arrows) showed significant destruction along with pyknotic nuclei, no clear lacunae, and many vacuoles inside the lacunae. (c) ICA group showing destroyed chondrocytes (arrows). Nuclei were not centrally located and within a vacuole inside the lacunae. (d) Control group: the disrupted chondrocytes showed that many atrophic nuclei were not centrally located and some had no nuclei (arrows) (original magnification ×300). L, lacunae; N, nuclei; E, extracellular matrix; V, vacuoles. (e) The Mankin grading system was used for the evaluation of articular cartilage degeneration. In the AIA group, higher Mankin score values were obtained with increasing cartilage degeneration (p < 0.01). However, there was a lower mean score in the ICA group compared with that in the AIA group (p < 0.05). Results are presented as the mean ± SD. n = 6  ^∗ p < 0.05, ^∗∗ p < 0.01 versus corresponding group.