Figure 6.

Evaluation of the Ability of ADAMTS9-AS2-Overexpressing hMSCs to Stimulate Cartilage Repair In Vivo

(A) Scheme graph for osteochondral defects with a diameter of 5 mm. (B) Photograph of the osteochondral defects from rats (8–10 weeks old) femur heads. (C and D) Cartilage formation was assessed by Alcian blue staining and toluidine blue staining in control and ADAMTS9-AS2 overexpression group. (G) Immunohistochemistry assay for sections of Col2α1 abundance after 3 months in control and ADAMTS9-AS2 overexpression group. (H) Antibody staining of paraffin-embedded sections of ColX expression after 3 months in control and ADAMTS9-AS2 overexpression group. (E, F, I, and J) Quantitative statistics for dyeing results of (C), (D), (G), and (H) between different groups. (K) Schematic image of the circuitry linking lncRNA-ADAMTS9-AS2, miR-942-5p, and Scrg1 and chondrogenic differentiation. Data are shown as mean ± SD; *p, 0.05, **p, 0.01; ns, non-significant. Experiments were performed in triplicate and error bars represent SD of a triplicate set of experiments. NT, newly formed tissue. Scale bars, 100 and 50 μm for the lower and higher magnification photomicrographs, respectively.