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. 2020 May 28;15:3771–3790. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S252223

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Six-month-old spontaneous OA Dunkin-Hartley guinea pigs were administered with pure rapamycin or L-rapa with LIPUS or sLIPUS for 8 weeks. GAGs in the cartilage of knee stained by safranin O-Fast Green and quantified using Image-Pro Plus 5.1 software. The GAGs in each experimental group were showed at 12.5 and 100 magnificence (A–H). (I) Intra-articular injection of 50 μM and 5 μM L-rapa combined with LIPUS thrice a week, and 5 μM L-rapa with sLIPUS (Groups D, F and G) significantly increased the content of GAGs compared to control (Group A: PBS + sLIPUS). 50 μM and 5 μM L-rapa with LIPUS showed the greatest GAGs-stimulating actions and nearly doubled GAGs density compared to that in control (L-rapa: liposomes-encapsulated rapamycin; LIPUS: low-intensity pulsed ultrasound; sLIPUS: sham LIPUS; *P<0.05; **P<0.01; by one-way ANOVA, Group A: n=5, Groups B~G: n=8, Group H: n=3).