Figure 3.

Treatment with A-LA reduced positive staining for catabolic mediators in cartilage explants. Punches from OA cartilage were cultured for 14 days in different conditions then cross-sectioned to show superficial on top with deep zone on bottom. (a–e) Control group, (b–f) IL-1β + OSM group, (c–g) IL-1β + OSM + LA 10 µM group, (d–h) IL-1β + OSM + A-LA 10 µM group, left column represents NOS2 staining and right column MMP-13 staining. Extracellular matrix was stained with alcian blue and light green. Images furthest left were taken at ×2.5 magnification while images 1 and 2 are zoomed in to framed areas with ×20 magnification. Unless otherwise indicated, scale bars are 200 µm. Shown are the representative images from n = 3.