Fig 2. Box plot of median and interquartile range of osteoarthritis severity scores for each group at each assessment time point.

Osteoarthritis severity was assessed using the grading system proposed by Pritzker et al. [38], where 0 indicates ‘absence’ and 6 ‘maximum severity’. Control group showed no signs of osteoarthritis at 40 days and insignificant or incipient disease at 100 days. Osteoarthritis group had intermediate median scores at both time points, indicating that disease severity remained stable throughout the study. At 40 days, median scores were similar for the treatment and osteoarthritis groups, but at 100 days the treatment group had lower scores, indicating that treatment with chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine was effective (CG₄₀: control group at 40 days, OG₄₀: osteoarthritis group at 40 days, TG₄₀: treatment group at 40 days, CG₁₀₀: control group at 100 days, OG₁₀₀: osteoarthritis group at 100 days, TG₁₀₀: treatment group at 100 days).