Fig. 5

Inhibition of COX-2 attenuates the progression of RA. a Safranin O and fast green staining of sagittal sections of the medial tibial subchondral bone of COX-2^flox/flox, TNF-α Tg^+/− -COX-2^flox/flox, and TNF-α Tg^+/− DMP1-Cre:COX-2^flox/flox mice. Scale bars, 200 μm. b and c Immunohistochemical staining b and quantitative analysis c of COX-2⁺ cells (brown) in the subchondral bone of COX-2^flox/flox, TNF-α Tg^+/− -COX-2^flox/flox, and TNF-α Tg^+/− DMP1-Cre:COX-2^flox/flox mice. Scale bars, 25 μm. N = 5 mice in each group from three independent experiments. d and e Quantitative analysis of the bone volume (BV)/tissue volume (TV) ratio d and trabecular pattern factor (Tb.Pf) e in subchondral bone of COX-2^flox/flox, TNF-α Tg^+/− -COX-2^flox/flox, and TNF-α Tg^+/− DMP1-Cre:COX-2^flox/flox mice, as determined by μCT analysis. N = 5 mice in each group from three independent experiments. All data are shown as the mean ± standard deviation. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. Statistical significance was determined by ANOVA