Figure 5.

Influence of curcumin, BMS-345541 on the association of p-NF-kB-p65 to Sox9 in chondrocytes grown in OA-EN as shown by co-immunoprecipitation assay. Chondrocytes in alginate cultures by themselves (Ba. Co.) were kept untreated or treated with curcumin or co-cultured with fibroblasts and T-lymphocytes (OA-EN) and either kept untreated or treated with different dosages of curcumin (Cur) or with different dosages of BMS-345541 for 14 days, as outlined in Materials and Methods. Total cell proteins were immunoprecipitated (IP) with p-NF-kB-p65 and optimized by immunoblotting (IB) with anti-Sox9. The initial samples were run using an antibody to β-actin, which acts as a kind of control. Data were compared with the control, and statistically significant meaningful levels of p < 0.05 are marked with (^★) and p < 0.01 with (^★★).