Follistatin Alleviates Synovitis and Articular Cartilage Degeneration Induced by Carrageenan

Figure 3

Histological analyses of articular cartilage degeneration induced by carrageenan at day 3. (a) Safranin-O staining of sagittal sections of mice knee joints at day 3 after carrageenan injection. Boxed areas in the top panels are magnified and presented in the bottom panels. CA: carrageenan group; CA + FLT: carrageenan + follistatin group; Con: control group; FLT: follistatin group. Magnification: top ×40, bottom ×100. Arrowhead indicates the region where proteoglycan erosion is observed. (b) Semiquantitative analyses of articular cartilage degeneration. The degree of articular cartilage degeneration was semiquantitatively evaluated (Modified Coles Score (Coles et al., Arthritis & Rheumatology, 2010)) [19]. Histological scores of articular cartilage from femurs and tibiae were evaluated, respectively, and total scores were compared between the two groups .

(a)

(b)