Figure 2

More severity and increased histopathological scores of PIA caused by poly(I:C) local treatment. (A) Poly(I:C) or NS was intra-articularly injected into different ankle cavities of each PIA rat and each control rat, and the arthritis clinical indexes, including clinical score, changes in midpaw perimeter and ankle perimeter of the paws, were compared among four groups (eight paws in each group). Clinical data were calculated using the Mann-Whitney U test (*/#P < 0.05, **/##P < 0.01, ***/###P < 0.001). *Pristane/poly(I:C) group vs. pristane/NS group. #Pristane/poly(I:C) group vs. NS/poly(I:C) group. Shaded box represents a synergistic effect assessed by two-way analysis of variance. (B) Representative histological images of ankle joints from each group at D7 and D14 are shown (H & E stain; original magnification, ×100). (C) Synovitis scores were quantified for histological analysis. Pathological data were calculated using the Mann-Whitney U test (*P < 0.05). *Comparison between groups as marked. (D) mRNA expression of TLR3 in synovium of each joint (eight joints in each group) at D26 was measured by real-time PCR. Values are presented as means ± SEM. Gene assay results were calculated by using Student's t-test (*P < 0.05). Correlation between TLR3 expression and the clinical indexes was measured by using Spearman's σ analysis.