Figure 8

Metformin treatment amiliorates rat IDD in vivo. (a) T2-weighted MRI of a rat tail with a needle-punctured disc at 8 and 16 weeks post surgery (white arrows). (b) The Pfirrmann MRI grade scores in three groups at week 8 and week 16. (c) Representative S-O staining of disc samples from different experimental groups at 8 and 16 weeks post surgery (original magnification × 40, scale bar: 100 μm). (d) The histological grades evaluated at week 8 and week 16 in three groups. (e–g) Immunohistochemical staining of LC3-II and cleaved-caspase3 expression in the disc samples (original magnification × 100, scale bar: 50 μm).The data in the figures represent the averages±S.D. Significant differences between the treatment and control groups are indicated as **P<0.01, *P<0.05, n=6