Fig. 7

Anti-adiponectin antibodies reduce the histological signs of inflammation. The upper and lower panels present hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunostaining against mouse adiponectin of mouse knee joints (n = 8), respectively. a Normal, b control, saline-treated arthritic, c KH7–33-treated arthritic, d KH4–8-treated arthritic, and (e) prednisolone-treated arthritic mice. Tissue structure was visualized by using H&E staining (original magnification, 40×). Scale bar = 2 mm. f Arthritic symptoms were evaluated by scoring the degree of inflammation on H&E histological sections of knee joints as described in the Methods. Small blue squares on H&E staining are magnified in the upper right corner (400×). Abbreviations: C cartilage, F femur, M meniscus, S subchondral bone, T tibia. In the lower panel, immunohistochemistry (IHC) reveals adiponectin expression in collagen-induced arthritis mouse joints (200×). The increased adiponectin expression level observed on IHC was not decreased by monoclonal antibody treatment. Adiponectin immunostaining score level was evaluated as described in the Methods. Results are presented as the mean of experiments (± standard error of the mean indicated by error bar) (one-way analysis of variance followed by Dunn’s multiple comparison test). ***P <0.001 versus the normal (NOR) group and ^#P <0.05, ^##P <0.01 versus the control (CON) group. Abbreviation: pre prednisolone