Figure 6.

Downregulation of miR-495 resulted in decreased cell apoptosis of articular chondrocytes of osteoarthritic rats. A. Eight weeks after surgery, miR-495 level in the tibial cartilage was detected by qRT-PCR. The results were expressed as the means ± SD of three independent experiments. **, P < 0.01 (Two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test). B. Representative safranin O-fast green staining of the knee joint from each group. F: femur; T: tibia. Scale bars: 100 μm. C. AKT1 in the tibial cartilage was measured by western blot assay. D. Cleavage of caspase-3 in the cartilage was measured by western blot assay. E. Protein levels of catabolic biomarkers (ADAMTS-5, -7, MMP-1, -13 and COMP fragment), anabolic biomarkers (COL II and Aggrecan) and the hypertrophic chondrocyte marker (COL X) were analyzed by western blot assay.