Figure 4.

(A) End plate changes including μCT and Safranin O and fast green staining in the young and aged monkeys with high or low T2 map values of the intervertebral disc. (B) The sclerotic end plate occurred in the front one-third of the end plate (1 and 3); the cartilage in the middle one-third of the end plate of the aged group (4) was thinner than that in the young group (2). (C) And the immunohistology staining of type II collagen showed that type II collagen–positive area (brown) was lower expression in the aged group than that in the young group. (D) The thickness of middle end plate had been calculated, and there were statistically significant differences in the two groups. μCT = microcomputed tomography.