FIGURE 2.
Therapeutic effect of human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) transplantation on the rat model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). The rats were injected with HUMSCs via the tail vein (1 × 106 cells/rat, only once) or orally administered methotrexate (MTX; 1.5 mg/kg, twice a week) or pure water (both the control and CIA groups) for 28 days beginning on day 10 after primary immunization, and the arthritic index (AI) and inflammation score were then evaluated. (A) Representative gross lesions of the ankle joints after model development and treatments. (B) The arthritis severity was assessed every 3 days. Line plots show the AI score of all the groups. (C) Representative pathological sections of the ankle joints subjected to H&E staining. Scale bar = 200 μm. (D) The degree of inflammation in the ankle joints was scored according to lymphocyte infiltration, synovial hyperplasia, pannus, cartilage damage, and joint destruction based on H&E staining N = 8. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM. ##P < 0.01 compared with the Control group, *P < 0.05 compared with the CIA group. Control group = normal control group, CIA group = model group, MTX treatment group = positive control group, HUMSCs group = HUMSCs transplantation group.