Figure 1

RLE increased apoptotic FLS in joints of CIA rats. (A) RLE increased TUNEL-positive FLS in joints of CIA rats. Representative images of TUNEL-stained joint sections are shown in left panels. Enlarged images (areas of synovium, left upper panels, scale bar: 100 μm) were magnified from the framed region in the corresponding large-scale images (left lower panels, scale bar: 200 μm). DAPI-positive (blue) cells and TUNEL‐positive (green) cells in enlarged images were counted using ImageJ software. Percentages of TUNEL-positive cells are presented in the right panel. (B) RLE increased cleaved caspase-3-positive FLS in joints of CIA rats. Representative images of cleaved caspase-3-stained joint sections are shown in left panels. Enlarged images (areas of synovium, left upper panels, scale bar: 100 μm) were magnified from the framed region in the corresponding large-scale images (left lower panels, scale bar: 200 μm). DAPI-positive (blue) cells and cleaved caspase-3‐positive (red) cells in enlarged images were counted using ImageJ software. Percentages of cleaved caspase-3-positive cells are presented in the right panel. In (A,B), rat joints were collected from a previous study (n = 6; randomly selected 6 from 8 rats in each group). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. model group.