Fig. 5: The OSPPB hydrogel alleviates TMJOA in mice.
a The facile fabrication route depicting the design and the results of the in vivo experiment. Reproduced under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY-4.0)20. b Illustrative macroscopic views above the condyles at 3 weeks after intra-articular injection, depicting comparative morphology in the control (CON) and experimental (unilateral anterior crossbite, UAC) groups. c Representative images of H&E staining, SF staining, sliver staining, SEM (arrows indicate micro-fractures), and micro-CT. d–k OARSI score and semi-statistical analysis of the images in (c). n = 6, H(3) = 16.12, p = 0.0011 in (d). n = 6, F(3, 20) = 28.63, p < 0.0001 in (e). n = 6, F(3, 20) = 43.48, p < 0.0001 in (f). n = 6, H(3) = 14.56, p = 0.0022 in (g). n = 6, H(3) = 14.92, p = 0.0019 in (h). n = 6, F(3, 20) = 27.57, p < 0.0001 in (i). n = 6, F(3, 20) = 16.42, p < 0.0001 in (j). n = 6, F(3, 20) = 38.22, p < 0.0001 in (k). l qRT-PCR analysis of the gene expression of neurovascular factors (Vegf, Pdgfb, Ngf, Ntn1, Ntn3, Ntn4) in the condyles. Scale bars = 200 μm (b), 100 μm (c1–3), 10 μm (c4), and 500 μm (c5). Data are shown as the means and standard deviations. Kruskal–Wallis (KW) test is followed by Dunn’s test for post hoc multiple comparisons in (d, g, h). One-way ANOVA is followed by the Tukey-Kramer method for post hoc multiple comparisons in (e, f, i–l).
