Figure 3

Effects of TLR2-blockade on expression levels of chondrocyte development and cartilage degradation-related genes in PG peptide-stimulated chondrocytes. Knee OA chondrocytes (N = 10) were treated with 50 ng/ml of IFNγ and 10 µg/ml of PG peptides (p16-31, p263-280 or p2379-2394), the aggrecan 32-mer peptide or Col2 peptide in the presence of 20 ng/ml of anti-TLR2 antibodies and expression levels of chondrocyte development and cartilage degradation-related genes were determined by quantitative realtime PCR. Comparison of expression levels of chondrocyte differentiation and development (HOXA11, SOX5 and RUNX2) (A), cartilagenous matrix (COL2A1) (B), and cartilage degradation (IL-6) (C) -related genes from chondrocytes stimulated with IFNγ and PG peptides, aggrecan 32-mer peptide and Col2 peptide with and without anti-TLR2 treated chondrocytes were normalized to GAPDH and interpreted as relative expression levels (fold change) (Y-axis). Data was shown as mean ± SEM and statistical significance was calculated by two-way ANOVA with bonferroni post hoc test (*,p < 0.0500; **, p < 0.0100; ***, p < 0.0010; ****, p < 0.0001).