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Fig. 5 | Arthritis Research & Therapy

Fig. 5

From: Diet-induced obesity leads to behavioral indicators of pain preceding structural joint damage in wild-type mice

Fig. 5

Effect of diet-induced obesity on the knee joint. a Representative histological coronal sections of the medial knee compartment stained with toluidine blue from mice fed either control chow, high-fat, or western diet for 24 or 40 weeks. Images are oriented with the medial femoral condyle (MFC) located superiorly, and the medial tibial plateau (MTP) inferiorly. White arrows indicate a loss of proteoglycan staining and focal fibrillation of the cartilage, and yellow asterisks indicate osteophyte formation. b Histopathological grading of the knee joints using the murine Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) scale corresponding to MTP, MFC, lateral tibial plateau (LTP), and lateral femoral condyle (LFC), combined to generate the summed score for the whole joint. Mice fed the western diet for 40 weeks showed a significant increase in the degenerative score in the MFC compared to those fed the control chow. However, no difference was seen in the whole joint score between any of the groups at either timepoint. c Average articular cartilage thickness. After 40 weeks on the high-fat diet, mice presented with decreased articular cartilage thickness on the LTP. No other differences were seen in any other joint compartment. Data analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test. d Percent trabecular bone in the medial and lateral subchondral compartments of the tibia. Mice fed  the western diet for 40 weeks exhibited significantly more trabecular bone in the medial compartment for the tibia. Analyzed by one-way ANOVA. e Presence and absence of osteophytes was assessed in all mice. Mice fed the high-fat and western diets showed increased osteophyte formation compared to chow-fed controls at both timepoints. Analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test. n = 9–16 animals per diet/per timepoint. All data are plotted mean ± 95% CI, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001

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