Figure 5.
Effect of the downregulation of thrombospondin-1 (THBS1) in adipose stem cells (ASCs) in the collagenase-induced osteoarthritis (CIOA) murine model. (A) Representative photographs of knee joints from control CIOA mice (collagenase alone) (upper), and CIOA mice treated with ASC-siCT (middle) or ASC-siTHBS1 (lower) and (B) OA score for cartilage destruction as evaluated on histological sections of knee joints (n = 20/group). (C) Representative reconstructed 3D pictures of knee joint cartilage after confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis. A color bar code indicative of cartilage thickness was added on the left. (D) Cartilage morphometric parameters [cartilage volume, thickness, and surface irregularity (surface/volume)] were measured for the three groups of mice. (E) Representative reconstructed 3D pictures of tibiae epiphyses after microtomography analysis. A color bar code indicative of thickness was added on the left. (F) Bone morphometric analysis of sub-chondral bone measuring surface irregularity (surface/volume; 1/mm), thickness (mm), and bone mineral density (BMD; g/cm3) was performed. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 20/group). Statistics used ANOVA test: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 compared to CIOA control group.