Figure 5.

Histological changes in the hind knee joints treated with normal saline (control) (a and d), 0.1 mg monosodium iodoacetate (b and e), or 0.1 mg monosodium iodoacetate plus human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell transplantation (c and f) at 28 days following normal saline or monosodium iodoacetate injection. The upper panel (a-c) presents H and E staining and the lower panel (d-f) presents toluidine blue staining. Scale bar = 100 μm. There was greater cell loss in the monosodium iodoacetate-injected knees. (d) Histological scores of knee joints of experimental mice. The graph (g) depicts the histological scoring for the six categories in the International Cartilage Repair Society scoring system in the control, monosodium iodoacetate, and human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell groups (n = 6 in each group). Comparisons between groups were performed using the one-way ANOVA test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01