Fig. 1.

Experimental setup. Bovine articular cartilage explants (3 mm × 1 mm cylinders including the superficial zone, 4 per well) were cultured for three weeks according to the following treatment conditions: (N) untreated controls; (I) a single applied mechanical impact injury (50% final strain at a strain rate of 100%/s, followed by immediate release at the same rate); (C), addition of cytokines: TNFα, IL-6 and sIL-6R (10 ng/ml, 20 ng/ml, and 100 ng/ml, respectively) (IC), applied injury plus addition of cytokines; (D), untreated control + Dex (100 nM); (ID), applied injury + Dex; (CD), cytokines + Dex; or (ICD), applied injury + cytokines + Dex. Culture medium was changed every two days, and three biological replicates (animals) were used for all treatment conditions.