Fig 1.
Schematic illustration of possible mechanisms for remission of collagen-induced arthritis.
Fig 2.
Schematic chronogram of experimental design.
Table 1.
The procedures of different experimental groups.
Table 2.
Morphological features of synovium.
Table 3.
Modified OARSI scores to evaluate the cartilage status microscopically.
Fig 3.
Representative photos of different degrees of CIA severity (A − D); disease scores in individual male SD rats after immunization with type II collagen (COL-II) and treatment with allogeneic BMMSCs (E).
Each limb of a rat was scored separately, and the average score for each animal was calculated.
Fig 4.
Relative proliferation of lymphocytes isolated from DLN (A) and spleen (B) of CIA rats stimulated by 5.0 μmol of COL-II after treatment with BMMSCs.
Data are represented as means ± SD (n = 3).
Fig 5.
Flow cytometry analysis of CD3+ T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood analyzed using FITC-conjugated anti-CD3, PE-conjugated anti-CD4, and APC-conjugated anti-CD8 mAbs.
Fig 6.
Concentrations of IL-1β, TNF-α and anti-COL-II Ab in serum analyzed by ELISA.
Data are represented as means ± SD (n = 3).
Fig 7.
Typical appearance of articular cartilage at different time points after implantation.
Fig 8.
Longitudinal section of distal femur indicating the region of interest (black box and yellow box for synovium and cartilage, respectively) (A); synovium was stained with H&E (scar bar = 100 μm) (B), and the histopathological score was evaluated at 4, 8 and 12 weeks post-transplantation (C).
Fig 9.
H&E staining of cartilage sections (scar bar = 100 μm) (A), the modified OARSI score of microscopic observation (B) and the ratio of the thickness of hyaline cartilage to calcified cartilage were evaluated at 4, 8 and 12 weeks post-transplantation (C).