Figure 6

Suppressive effects of D₆-esRAGE, but not esRAGE, on histopathological abnormalities in knee joints of mice immunized with bovine collagen type II. Treatment of each esRAGE and D₆-esRAGE started to be administered intraperitoneally at a dose of 1 mg/kg per week on d 14 after primary immunization. (A) On d 34, the legs of immunized mice were dissected and sectioned, followed by H&E staining and Safranin O staining. (B) To assess the histopathological severity of arthritis focusing on synovial hyperplasia, cartilage destruction and bone destruction, histopathological scoring was performed in a blinded manner. D₆-esRAGE provided an impact to reduce the histopathological scores on synovial lesion (disappearance of hyperplasia), cartilage destruction (smooth surface of organized articular cartilage) and bone destruction, whereas esRAGE did not show any significant preventive effect on histopathological abnormalities. Each column with a bar represents the mean ± SEM of six mice. ^*Significantly different from vehicle-treated immunized mice (control) at P < 0.05. AC, articular cartilage; JC, joint cavity; P pannus; S, synovium; scale bar = 100 µm.