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. 2021 Dec 24;23(1):182. doi: 10.3390/ijms23010182

Figure 3.

Figure 3

ERp57 cKO mice show an accelerated development of osteoarthritis during aging. (A) Histological analysis and OARSI scoring of toluidine blue-stained knee sections of 18-month-old mice reveals an increase in cartilage degradation, the occurrence of hypertrophic chondrocytes (*), and osteophyte formation (scattered box) in ERp57 cKO mice, but not in WT animals (p = 0.0039). No significant difference was detected between younger WT and ERp57 cKO mice at the age of 9 months (p = 0.7924) and 12 months (p = 0.2503). Scale Bars = 100 µm. (B) TUNEL staining indicates a higher percentage of apoptotic cells in the articular cartilage of ERp57 cKO mice at 9 (p = 0.0271), 12 (p = 0.0490) and 18 months (p = 0,000000028) compared to WT animals. Scale bars = 50 µm (C) Immunofluorescence of 18-month-old ERp57 cKO cartilage reveals increased staining intensities of matrix degrading proteases MMP3 (p = 0.0004), MMP9 (p = 0.0097), ADAMTS4 (p = 0.0428), and ADAMTS5 (p = 0.0288) compared to WT controls. M = months. n ≥ 4. *** p < 0.005, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.