Figure 5

Severity of cartilage surface erosion in knee-joint cartilage of 5-month-old ovariectomized (OVX) rats treated with the vehicle alone (OVX vehicle), with estrogen (OVX estrogen), or with the selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) (-)-cis-3,4-diarylhydroxychromane, given in either a low dose (0.2 mg/kg per day; OVX SERM low) or a high dose (5 mg/kg per day; OVX SERM high). Means for vehicle-treated sham-operated rats are also included (Sham). The erosion is expressed as percentage of total cartilage surface. The left side of the graph shows the accumulated total mean score for all four joint compartments (medial and lateral femur and tibia) and the right side, for the medial femur only. Error bars indicate SEM. The significance of differences between treatment groups and the OVX vehicle group was assessed using Student's t-test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.