Fig. 3: Deletion of Mbd2 resulted in activation of ferroptosis in chondrocytes.

a A schematic of the experimental design. b Volcano plot showing the DEGs between the Ad-GFP group and Mbd2-deleted Ad-Cre infected chondrocytes. A total of 259 upregulated and 228 downregulated genes were identified by setting the threshold of |log₂foldchange| to 1 and the P value to 0.05. c GO term analysis of DEGs between the Ad-GFP and Ad-Cre infected chondrocytes. P.adjust (adjusted p-value corrected for multiple testing). d A heatmap of markers associated with cartilage homeostasis. e A Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis of DEGs between the Ad-GFP and the Mbd2-deleted (Ad-Cre) chondrocytes revealed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in the ferroptosis signaling pathway. f A heatmap of markers associated with the ferroptosis signaling pathway. g, h Representative images of TUNEL and EdU staining (g) demonstrated that the absence of Mbd2 resulted in elevated apoptosis and diminished proliferation in chondrocytes (h). i,j Representative images of ferrous ions in the indicated group (i) and statistical analysis of fluorescence intensity (ferrous ions) (j). k Representative TEM images of mitochondria in chondrocytes transfected with Ad-GFP or Ad-Cre following 5 ng ml⁻¹ IL-1β induction for 24 h, the black arrowheads indicate mitochondria in chondrocytes. l, Representative images of GPX4 and ACSL4 expression in knee sections of WT and cKO mice after sham or DMM surgery. m,n Quantification analysis of images in l. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.