Figure 5 | Scientific Reports

Figure 5

From: Intra-articular collagenase in the spinal facet joint induces pain, DRG neuron dysregulation and increased MMP-1 absent evidence of joint destruction

Figure 5

Detection of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) expression in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and spinal cord at day 21. Collagenase injection in the facet increases MMP-1 protein expression in the DRG (collagenase n = 5; vehicle n = 3; Wilcoxon test; *p = 0.039) with pronounced labeling in DRG cells. Dashed insets in the DRG images show representative cropped regions (600 × 600 pixels) where MMP-1 labeling is quantified in DRG cells. Spinal MMP-1 in the superficial dorsal horn is also greater with intra-articular collagenase (collagenase n = 6; vehicle n = 2; Wilcoxon test; *p = 0.041). Low magnification images (top) show the superficial spinal cord, from which high magnification images (middle) were acquired for quantification. Dashed insets in high magnification images show representative cropped (1500 × 500 pixels) regions where MMP-1 labeling is quantified in the superficial dorsal horn. Images of the no primary, negative controls are shown for both DRG and spinal cord labels. Box-and-whisker plots show horizontal lines representing the first (lower) quartile, median, and third (upper) quartile of the data. Data points for individual rats on boxplots represent the mean of 6–8 images/rat for each of the DRG and spinal cord quantification.

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