Fig. 5.

Effects of a slight amount of IL-1β with cyclic compressive loading. The mRNA levels of ADAMTS4 and IL-1R were substantially increased by the cyclic compressive stress. Increased expressions of both mRNAs were observed in the 3D-cultured constructs treated with a sufficient amount of IL-1β (10 ng/ml) as a positive control. Compressive stress plus 1 pg/ml IL-1β upregulated the levels of ADAMTS4 and IL-1R expression, but 1 pg/ml IL-1β alone failed to do so. Values are given as mean ± SD (n = 6 each). *P < 0.05