Randomized controlled studies on the efficacy of antiarthritic agents in inhibiting cartilage degeneration and pain associated with progression of osteoarthritis in the rat

Table 5 Histological analysis in the MMT/MCLT studies (fluocinolone)

Animal	Knee	Medial tibial cartilage degeneration score^a				Tibial cartilage degeneration width		Depth ratio, any matrix change^b		Medial tibial osteophytes		Medial femoral cartilage degeneration score^a	Bone score	Total joint score without femur	Total joint score
		Three-zone total	Zone 1 (Outside)	Zone 2 (Middle)	Zone 3 (Inside)	Total^c (μm)	Sig^d (μm)	Mean	Zone 2	Score^e	Measure (μm)
1	R	6.33	4.33	2.00	0.00	1133.33	633.33	0.34	0.05	3.00	413.33	2.00	4.00	9.33	11.33
2	R	4.67	3.33	1.33	0.00	1000.00	433.33	0.28	0.06	1.33	280.00	3.00	1.00	6.00	9.00
3	R	7.00	4.67	2.33	0.00	1133.33	766.67	0.39	0.16	3.00	426.67	2.33	2.00	10.00	12.33
4	R	7.67	4.67	2.67	0.33	1600.00	800.00	0.42	0.31	4.67	586.67	3.00	3.00	12.33	15.33
5	R	5.33	4.00	1.33	0.00	1266.67	566.67	0.33	0.05	3.00	400.00	1.33	3.00	8.33	9.67
6	R	6.00	4.00	2.00	0.00	1100.00	666.67	0.35	0.10	2.67	380.00	2.00	3.00	8.67	10.67
7	R	4.67	3.00	1.67	0.00	1400.00	466.67	0.29	0.13	2.00	333.33	1.00	3.00	6.67	7.67
8	R	5.00	3.00	2.00	0.00	1066.67	433.33	0.32	0.03	2.33	333.33	1.00	2.00	7.33	8.33
Mean		5.83	3.88	1.92	0.04	1212.50	595.83	0.34	0.11	2.75	394.17	1.96	2.63	8.58	10.54
SE		0.39	0.24	0.16	0.04	70.69	51.35	0.02	0.03	0.34	32.50	0.28	0.32	0.71	0.88
t test to G1		0.19	0.23	0.23	1.00	0.27	0.05	0.46	0.18	0.02	0.01	0.77	0.11	0.04	0.12
Percentage		0.11	0.10	0.13	0.00	0.08	0.18	0.06	0.41	0.30	0.23	−0.07	0.19	0.18	0.14

SE, standard error; Sig, significant; G1, group 1
Shown are results of the analysis of toluidine-stained sections from three levels within the joints of a group of eight animals treated systemically with 10 μg/kg fluocinolone for 21 days. Note that the cartilage degeneration and total joint scores depicted in Table 4 were not statistically different compared with the control group treated with saline (not shown). Several other measures were significantly different (t test results in boldface type). To view similar data for all the groups in both models, see Additional file 1
^aCartilage degeneration score = depth (0–5) for each of three zones, then summed (mean of three-step section)
^bMean lesion depth in micrometers versus depth to tidemark in center of zone in the tibial plateau (mean of three-step section)
^cWidth of any cartilage lesion (mean of three-step section)
^dWidth of cartilage degeneration extending >50 % of total thickness (mean of three-step section)
^eOsteophyte scores 1 = small up to 299 μm, 2 = medium 300–399 μm, 3 = large 400–499 μm, 4 = very large 500–599 μm, 5 = very large >600 μm

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