Figure 7: Evaluation of the therapeutic potential of CTGF and TGFβ1 in a pre-clinical in vivo rodent disc injury model of DDD. | Scientific Reports

Figure 7: Evaluation of the therapeutic potential of CTGF and TGFβ1 in a pre-clinical in vivo rodent disc injury model of DDD.

From: Molecular Therapy for Degenerative Disc Disease: Clues from Secretome Analysis of the Notochordal Cell-Rich Nucleus Pulposus

Figure 7

(A) Representative Safranin-O staining photomicrographs representing uninjured, healthy IVD and injured rat IVDs injected with phosphate - buffered saline (PBS, used as a control), CTGF, TGFβ1 or a combination of CTGF and TGFβ1 (Scale bar 500μ, n = 12 tissue sections/group). (B) Representative Safranin-O and immunohistochemical staining of ECM proteins, aggrecan and collagen 2 in paraffin embedded sections of rat tail injured IVD - NPs treated with phosphate - buffered saline (PBS, used as a control), CTGF, TGFβ1 or a combination of CTGF and TGFβ1 (Scale bar 50μ). Immunohistochemistry for all the proteins was performed in duplicates in atleast 3 different IVD sections obtained from different animals from each group. (C) Scatter plots showing histological grading scores (mean ± S.D.) of rat healthy tail disc-NPs and injured tail disc-NPs following treatment with PBS, CTGF, TGFβ1 and a combination of CTGF and TGFβ1 (**p < 0.001). The p-values were determined for treatment with CTGF, TGFβ1 alone or in combination with respect to PBS. (D) Representative Western blot panels showing decreased expression of MMP-13 and Cox2, and restoration of the NC marker, brachyury and stem cell marker, Oct4 in NP tissue lysates (pooled) obtained from rat tail injured discs treated with CTGF, TGFβ1 or a combination of CTGF and TGFβ1.

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