Fig. 5. Femoral bone graft transplantations showed that deletion of AR in Prrx1-cre expressing cells from host mice impairs the function of AR^flox/Y donor graft.

AR^flox/Y and AR^-/Y;Prrx1::Cre host mice received transplantations of bone grafts from AR^flox/Y or AR^-/Y;Prrx1::Cre donor mice and samples were acquired on 14 days after the operation. A Representative 3D micro-CT images of femoral bone graft transplantation between AR^flox/Y (WT, wildtype) and AR^-/Y;Prrx1::Cre (ARKO) mice are shown: (1) WT graft to WT host, (2) KO graft to WT host, (3) WT graft to KO host, (4) KO graft to KO host. B Quantitative micro-CT analyses of total callus volume and new bone volume on host bone graft, donor bone graft and total bone segments are shown. Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n ≥ 5; *P < 0.001, ^#P < 0.001, one-way ANOVA). C Representative images of cross-sections of 14-day fracture calluses from four different groups stained with Alcian Blue/Hematoxylin and Goldner Trichrome stain. Scale bar = 50 µm. D Histomorphometric analyses of callus were performed on histologic sections prepared from four groups of transplantations. The percent area of bone (blue bar), cartilage (red bar) and fibrotic tissue (yellow bar) on the graft side (upper panel) and host side (lower panel) were quantified.