Table 5. The effect of maternal treatment with HMB on femoral cartilage morphology and densitometry in newborn piglets.

Item	Female		Male		SEM	Influence of
	control	HMB	control	HMB		treatment	sex	Interaction of treatment*sex
Femoral articular cartilage
Total, μm	1383a	1898b	1921b	1904b	26	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Zone I, μm	41b	50c	18a	44bc	1	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Zone II, μm	286b	244a	585d	424c	13	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Zone III, μm	699a	1397d	1130c	891b	26	<0.001	0.040	<0.001
Cartilage densitometry
BTD distal, g/cm3	2.52ab	2.32ab	2.65a	2.23b	0.05	0.003	0.852	0.226
Growth plate cartilage
Total, μm	1148a	1746d	1273b	1600c	26	<0.001	0.884	<0.001
Zone I, μm	384	872d	464b	602c	18	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Zone II, μm	163a	489d	252b	409c	13	<0.001	0.366	<0.001
Zone III, μm	179a	191a	187a	272b	5	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Zone IV, μm	182a	457b	171a	471b	15	<0.001	0.910	0.394

^{a, b, c, d}—mean values in rows with different letters differ significantly at P<0.05; SEM—standard error of the means.