Fig. 6

Analysis of cartilage destruction in arthritic WT and M3R^−/− mice. a–g Alcian blue/periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining on knee joint sections from male WT-LPS (a, e), M3R^−/−-LPS (b), WT-CAIA (c, f), and M3R^−/−-CAIA (d, g) mice. Original magnification: 100× (a–d) and 1000× (e–g). Arrows indicate regions of interest. h Histopathological quantification of cartilage destruction in knee joints of male arthritic WT and M3R^−/− mice. Data are given as mean of histopathological score ± SEM. i–l Immunohistochemical staining for collagen II (original magnification 200×) in sections from knee joints of male WT-LPS (i), M3R^−/−-LPS (j), WT-CAIA (k) and M3R^−/−-CAIA (l) mice. m–p Transmission electron microscopy of chondrocytes in knee joints of male WT-LPS (m), M3R^−/−-LPS (n), WT-CAIA (o) and M3R^−/−-CAIA (p) mice. Original magnification: 5000×. CAIA collagen antibody-induced arthritis, LPS lipopolysaccharide, M3R M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor, WT wild-type