Melatonin Prevents Osteoarthritis-Induced Cartilage Degradation via Targeting MicroRNA-140

Figure 7

Inhibition of miR-140 counteracted the antiarthritic effects of melatonin in surgically induced OA mice. After the destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) surgery, the sham-op and DMM-op mice were injected with melatonin (MT), negative control miRNA (antago miR-NC), or miRNA-140 antagomir (antago miR-140). (a) Representative images of histological (H&E and Safranin O/Fast Green) and immunohistochemical (COL II and COL I) staining of the medial femoral condyle in OA mice. . (b) OARSI scores were calculated based on the Safranin O/Fast Green staining results. (c, d) The percentages of COL II-positive (c) or COL I-positive (d) chondrocytes were counted. In each section, the quantitative analyses were counted at three random regions and then averaged. Values are the of ten independent experiments (). Statistically significant differences are indicated by ## where vs. the CTRL group and where between the indicated groups.

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