Fig. 7

RNPs alleviate knee osteoarthritis in vivo. (A) Micro-CT imaging of the morphological structure of the knee in mice at week 8 after surgery. Scale bar = 10 mm. (B) Osteophyte maturity (ROI zone) in the different groups of mice at week 8 after surgery, n = 8 mice per group. (C) Safranin-O/fast green staining of the mouse knee joint cartilage (hypertrophic chondrocytes were marked with black arrows), hematoxylin and eosin staining of cartilage and synovium at week 8 after surgery, Scale Bar 50 μm. (D, E) OA severity of knee joints at week 8 after surgery evaluated by OARSI score (D) and Mankin score (E), n = 8 mice per group. (F) Synovitis score, n = 8 mice per group. (G) Von Frey assay was performed at week 8 after surgery, n = 8 mice per group. (H) Immunohistochemical staining to detect the expression of cartilage specific indicators Col II (scale bar 50 μm) and the catabolic marker MMP13 (scale bar 20 μm) in mouse knee cartilage after sham or DMM surgery at week 8. Immunofluorescence staining to detect the expression of the cartilage specific indicator SOX9 (scale bar 20 μm). (I-K) Quantitative analysis of the staining images in (H), n = 3. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc analysis. Data are presented as means ± SD. ns, non-significant. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001