Research Article

Condylar Degradation from Decreased Occlusal Loading following Masticatory Muscle Atrophy

Figure 6

Subchondral bone loss. The selected areas were isolated from the condylar head, which aimed to reserve the trabecular bone to avoid interference by the cortical bone (a–c). The isolated spongy bones were reconstructed as illustrated (d–f). The changes of BV/TV, Tb.N, Tb.Th, and Tb.Sp evidenced osteopenia that occurred in the subchondral bone (g–j). TRAP staining showed that the osteoclasts (black arrows pointed) were significant upregulated in the BTX group compared with that in the control and SD groups (k–m) (p<0.05;p<0.01;p<0.001). Scale: Bar=25 μm.