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. 2022 May 18;13(5):470. doi: 10.1038/s41419-022-04919-1

Fig. 9. Injection of aggrecan into mice with focal cartilage defects results in increased cartilage repair.

Fig. 9

Mice underwent focal cartilage injury and intraarticular injection of aggrecan (A). Cartilage repair grading demonstrates an increase of cartilage repair with administration of intra-articularly delivered aggrecan (B). Mouse joints without injury, but with injection of aggrecan show little difference vs. non-injected joints in terms of Safranin O, collagen 2 or aggrecan staining (C–H). Injured joints post-aggrecan injection demonstrate an increased level of Safranin O, collagen 2 and aggrecan staining at the defect site (I–N). Injection of synovial MPCs from AcanCreERT2 (Acan−) (O–Q), C57Bl/6 (AcanWT) (R–T) or C57BL/6 MPCs overexpressing full length human aggrecan (Acan+) (U–W) demonstrated increasing levels of cartilage repair (B) and collagen 2/aggrecan staining related to their level of aggrecan expression. Scale bars equal 75 µm. *p < 0.05.