Fig 1.
(A) Viscosity curves of the pure viscosupplements. The graph represents the viscosity as a function of the shear rate. For all specimens the typical shear-thinning behavior of HA is observed. SN displays viscosity one order of magnitude lower than the other specimens. (B) Mechanical spectra of the pure viscosupplements. The graph represents the shear storage modulus G' (triangles) and the shear loss modulus G" (circle) as a function of the angular frequency.
Fig 2.
(A): Comparison of the mechanical spectrum of pure HX and its combinations: pure HX (black); HX+PBS 1:1 (red); HX+PRP 1:1 (blue); HX+PRP pre-added to 7% BSA (dark yellow). All HX combinations show a similar rheological profile, which is dictated by the dilution effect (B): Comparison of the mechanical spectrum of pure HL and its combinations: pure HL (black); HL+PBS 1:1 (red); HL+PRP 1:1 (blue); HL+PRP pre-added to 7% BSA (dark yellow). All HL combinations show a similar rheological profile, which is dictated by the dilution effect.
Fig 3.
(A): Mechanical spectra of HL and SF in combination with PRP. (B): Viscosity curve of HL and SF in combination with PRP.
Fig 4.
(A): Cell viability and proliferation overtime of chondrocytes cultured under different conditions normalized to the rates of chondrocytes cultured in growing media at day 0, 3 and 7. (B): GAG content normalized to DNA of chondrocytes cultured for 7 days under different conditions compared to the GAG content of chondrocytes cultured in growing media (*: p<0.05).