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. 2017 Nov 2;4(4):229–239. doi: 10.1016/j.gendis.2017.10.004

Figure 5.

Fig. 5

Sox9 promotes BMP9-induced proliferation of chondrocytes while Smad7 promotes chondrocyte hypertrophy of mouse limb explants. (A) Mouse limb explant culture. Mouse E18.5 forelimbs (n = 4 per group) were cultured in an organ culture medium containing Ad-BMP2 and Ad-GFP, Ad-Smad7, or Ad-Sox9. The infection efficiency was visualized under a fluorescent microscope at 48 h after infection. Representative images are shown. (B) Histological analysis of the cultured forelimbs. The forelimbs were subjected to H & E staining (a). Representative images are shown. Quantitative analysis of the average length of proliferating chondrocyte zone, hypertrophic zones, and pre-hypertrophic zones of the growth plate (b). The histologic stains were analyzed by using the Image J software. “Pro”, proliferative chondrocyte zone; “Hyp”, hypertrophic chondrocyte zone; “Pre”, pre-hypertrophic chondrocyte zone. “#” p < 0.05, vs. Ad-BMP2+Smad7; “*” p < 0.05, vs. Ad-GFP.