Fig. 5: Glucocorticoid signaling is important for fibroblast homeostasis and arthritis severity.

A Adipocyte depletion over 8wks in knee joints of AdipoQ cre+ iDTR+ mice. n = 3 biological replicates, representative of one independent experiment. B Whole joint qPCR following adipocyte depletion. Ctl= AdipoQ cre- iDTR-, Depleted= AdipoQ cre+ iDTR + , in both cases the joint taken for qPCR was injected intra-articularly with diphtheria toxin over a time course of 8 weeks. Ctl n = 3, depleted n = 4 biological replicates, representative of one independent experiment. C Naive synovium in Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl mice show decreased total Nr3c1 transcripts by qPCR as well as glucocorticoid-responsive genes compared to genotype controls. GT ctl n = 6, Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl n = 5 biological replicates, representative of one independent experiment. D Flow cytometry of fibroblasts from naive synovium. GT ctl n = 6, Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl n = 5 biological replicates, representative of two independent experiments. E Knee joint measurements of AIA Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl mice. GT ctl n = 11, Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl n = 13 biological replicates, representative of two independent experiments. GT ctl, PBS in black; GT ctl, mBSA in blue; Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl PBS in green; Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl mBSA in red. F Flow cytometry of synovium harvested day 11 post intra-articular mBSA injection. GT ctl n = 8, Pdgfra-CreER;Nr3c1fl/fl n = 8 biological replicates, representative of two independent experiments. A–D P values were calculated using a two-tailed Student’s T test, E, F were calculated using a two-way ANOVA. All data are presented as mean ± standard deviation except (E), which is ±SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.