Acupuncture Delays Cartilage Degeneration through Upregulating SIRT1 Expression in Rats with Osteoarthritis

Figure 1

Acupuncture counteracted OA-associated inflammation, morphological damage, and apoptosis in rat articular cartilages. (a/b): The levels of TNF-α and IL-2 in the serum of OA rats treated with or without acupuncture were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. (c/d): Morphological damage in the articular cartilage of OA rats treated with or without acupuncture was examined by safranin-O staining (magnification: ×100; scale: 50 µm). (e/f): Apoptosis of the articular cartilage of OA rats treated with or without acupuncture was assessed by the TUNEL assay (magnification: ×200; scale: 100 µm). or ^ ^ ^ < 0.001; vs. Sham; ^ vs. Model (OA: osteoarthritis; TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-α; IL-2: interleukin-2; TUNEL: terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick-end labeling).

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