Evaluation of CCL21 role in post-knee injury inflammation and early cartilage degeneration
Fig 10
MMD induced T cell infiltration to rat injured knees and treatment with CCL21-Ab reduced the number of CD4+ and CD8+ cells in MMD-knees at day 3 post surgery.
Images of areas from knee joints’ synovial tissues collected from; Sham-, control MMD-knees treated with PBS (MMD-PBS). and MMD-knees treated with CCL21-Ab (MMD-CCL21.Ab). Histology sections collected from rat knees at day 3 post-surgery were used. Immuno-histochemistry staining was performed using rat CD4 (A and C) and CD8 (B and D) antibodies, and counterstained with hematoxylin. Images in red squares represent areas from medial side of knee joints. Images in blue squares represent areas from collateral side of the knee joints. Images in green squares were taken at the frontal end of joint capsule, near the connection of the Patella ligament with femur. The exact position in knee joints is indicated in S1 Fig. The graph in the right bottom panel represents the number of positive stained cells per unit area at the joint capsules (E). Data are expressed as number of positive stained cells per unit area and are presented as mean ± SE. *P<0.05 vs Lk sham-operated knees. #P<0.05 vs MMD-saline, n = 5–6 knees.