Fig. 6

Hh signaling activation promotes GP injury after administrating ciliary SMO agonist. a Color maps of representative micro-CT images of operated tibias treated with DMSO or SAG at 1, 3, and 7 dpi. Scale bar, 1 mm. b Representative H&E staining of operated tibias treated with DMSO or SAG at 1, 3, and 7 days post-injury. Scale bars, 100 μm. c Flow cytometry analysis of skeletal stem and progenitor cell-surface-marker of operated tibias GP cells treated with DMSO or SAG at 3 dpi. lineage^- cells, CD45⁻Ter119^-CD31⁻ cells. n = 5. d Immunofluorescence for stem cell marker CD73 of operated tibias treated with DMSO or SAG at 3 days post-injury. White arrows indicate CD73⁺ cells. SOC, secondary ossification center. RZ, Resting Zone. PZ, Proliferating Zone. Scale bars, 50 μm. e Immunofluorescence staining for collagen II of operated tibias treated with DMSO or SAG, 1, 3, and 7 after GP injury. Scale bars, 100 μm. f ImageJ quantification of Col2⁺ area in growth plate at 1, 3, and 7 days after injection of DMSO or SAG. n = 6. g Operated tibia growth plates with EdU administration shortly before analysis at 1, 3, and 7 days after injection of DMSO or SAG. Scale bars, 200 μm. h Imaris quantification of EdU⁺ cells in growth plate at 1, 3, and 7 days after injection of DMSO or SAG. n = 6. The error bar represents the standard deviation of the mean. ns, no statistical significance, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01