Figure 1

β-catenin levels in chondrocytes subjected to tensile strain, separately or in combination with Wnt3A. Untreated chondrocytes served as controls. (A) Representative Western blot depicting β-catenin protein expression detected in cells processed immediately (direct); equivalent protein levels were confirmed by probing for the housekeeping protein GAPDH. Densitometric data are presented as β-catenin levels expressed as a percentage of the untreated controls after normalisation to GAPDH; statistical analysis was performed on Western blots from three independent experiments. (B) β-catenin localisation, immediately following loading (i - iv) or after a four-hour recovery period (v - x) as detected using confocal microscopy. β-catenin was detected using a FITC-conjugated secondary antibody (green) and nuclei counterstained with DAPI (blue): representative 3D-reconstructions are presented (scale bar = 6 μm).