Follistatin Alleviates Synovitis and Articular Cartilage Degeneration Induced by Carrageenan

Figure 4

Histological analyses of articular cartilage degeneration induced by carrageenan at day 14. (a) Safranin-O staining of sagittal sections of mice knee joints at day 14 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. Magnification: top ×40, bottom ×100. (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 .

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