Fig. 3

Penfluridol prevents the onset and severity of arthritis in hTNF-TG mice. TNFα overexpression mouse model (hTNF-TG) which can spontaneously develop arthritis were used to observe the inhibitory effect of penfluridol on TNFα-induced NF-κB activation in vivo. Drugs were administrated by oral gavage once a day. Prevention treatment is penfluridol was given to mice at the eighth week of age when arthritis symptom began its onset; treatment of penfluridol was administrated when average clinical arthritis scores reached 8 points in each group. A Clinical score of prevention treatment. B Deformity score of prevention treatment. C Body weight of prevention treatment. D Representative pictures of both front and hind paws in each prevention treatment groups. E H&E staining of paraffin-embedded ankle slides in prevention treatment groups. F Quantitative analysis of inflammation score and pannus formation and cartilage damage score of E. G H&E staining of paraffin-embedded knee sections in preventive treatment groups. H Quantitative analysis of inflammation score and pannus formation and cartilage damage score of G. I Serum IL-1β and IL-6 levels in preventive treatment groups, detected by ELISA. J Clinical scores in treatment groups. K Serum levels IL-1β and IL-6 in treatment groups, detected by ELISA. Six mice in each group. One-way analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc test were used to test statistical significance of the differences among groups, and repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test statistical differences of clinical scores among different groups (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001). PF: penfluridol