Fig. 5: Reducing H3K9la and NFATc2 levels alleviates joint destruction in CIA mice.

A The timeline of the FX-11 or AZD-3965 treated CIA mice experiment (n = 10 per group). B Clinical scores of mice. The scoring system was defined as 0 = no evidence of erythema and swelling, 1 = erythema, and mild swelling confined to the tarsals or ankle joint, 2 = erythema and mild swelling extending from the ankle to the tarsals, 3 = erythema and moderate swelling extending from the ankle to the metatarsal joints, and 4 = erythema and severe swelling encompass the ankle, foot, and digits, or ankylosis of the limb. Significance was tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) of repeated measurement. C Macroscopic images, histopathological images and immunofluorescence images of CIA mice. Macroscopic images of mice were observed on day 49 before being sacrificed. The knee joints of mice were stained by H&E (eosin stains the cytoplasm red, and hematoxylin stains the nuclei blue) and Safranin O Fast Green (cartilage is red when combined with safranin O, and bone is blue when combined with solid green) staining. Immunofluorescence images of H3K9la (red, bind H3K9la), NFATc2 (green, bind NFATc2) and DAPI (blue, bind nucleus) in knee joints. D Histopathological analysis of H&E staining. Semiquantitative scores for inflammatory cell infiltration, synovial hyperplasia, and bone destruction were assessed and graded on a scale of 0 (normal) to 3 (severe) for 4 paws for the histological score (n = 10 per group). E–H The levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β and IL-10 in serum were detected by ELISA (n = 10 per group). Data were presented with means ± SD. B Variance (ANOVA) of repeated measurement, test was two-sided. D, E–H One-way ANOVA with Turkey’s post hoc test. Source data are provided with this paper.