Figure 8: Biomechanical and biochemical evaluations of repaired tissue.

Compared with the 2-week and blank groups, repaired tissues in the 4- and 8-week groups showed higher contents of GAG (A), total collagen (B) and collagen II (C), as well as increased Young’s moduli (E) but lower collagen I content (close to native group levels) (D). Compressive loading-displacement curves showed different trends among groups (F). No significant differences were observed in the above examinations between the 4- and 8-week groups. Columns with different letters indicate statistical significance.