Figure 3.

Caspase 3/7 assay of chondrocytes cultured in a monolayer under inflammatory conditions. To induce apoptosis, chondrocytes obtained from: healthy cartilage (A); and patient-derived OA chondrocytes (B) were cultured with the transcription inhibitor Actinomycin D. To mimic the inflammatory environment present in OA, chondrocytes were treated with tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). To assess protective effect of mTORC1 inhibition on OA chondrocytes, cells were also treated with rapamycin. Experiments were performed in triplicates and results are shown as mean ± standard deviation (SD) was calculated for (A).