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. 2016 Jun 27;6:28862. doi: 10.1038/srep28862

Figure 5. Distribution of TGF-β1 protein immunoreactivity and confocal double-immunofluorescent staining of TGF-β1 and articular chondrocyte marker doublecortin in the cartilage.

Figure 5

Positive immunoreactivity of the TGF-β1 protein is indicated by the red-brown color (arrows). The panels show the distribution of anti-TGF-β1 immunoreactivity in the cartilage of the (A) naïve, (B) calcitonin 15 U, (C) ACLT + OVX, (D) ACLT + OVX + 3 U calcitonin, and (E) ACLT + OVX + 15 U calcitonin groups. All samples were stained with antibodies against TGF-β1 protein. (F) Quantitative analysis showed that calcitonin significantly enhanced the number of TGF-β1-positive cells in the cartilage of ACLT + OVX knees. Scale bar = 100 μm. *P < 0.05 compared with the naïve group, #P < 0.05 compared with the ACLT + OVX group. Representative confocal immunofluorescence microscopy images showing the localization of TGF-β1 (G; green in color) and doublecortin (H; red in color) of articular cartilage in the ACLT + OVX + 15 U calcitonin group. Colocalization is indicated by yellow (I) and arrows. The confocal results showed that TGF-β1 was primarily co-localized with articular chondrocytes. Scale bars are 50 μm for all images.