Figure 3

Functional role of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) on synovial fibroblast behavior. (A) Micophotographs of in vitro migration assays from human tumor necrosis factor alpha transgene (hTNFtg) and FAP knockout (fap^−/−) hTNFtg SF demonstrating gap closure after 56 hours. (B) Quantification comparison of gap closure between wild-type (wt) and fap^−/− as well as hTNFtg and fap^−/− hTNFtg SF at indicated time points. All data are means ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of three mice each. (C) Representative pictures of in vitro attachment of hTNFtg and fap^−/− hTNFtg SF on wt cartilage, pretreated with 1 ng/ml interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), after 14 hours. Cartilage and attached cells were stained with hematoxylin. (D) Quantitative assessment of attached synovial fibroblasts (SF) from hTNFtg and fap^−/− hTNFtg mice on both non-treated (white bars) and treated (black bars) wt cartilage. All data are means ± SEM of three mice each (^* P <0.05).