Journal: Bioactive Materials

Article Title: Mechanically sensitized hydrogel microspheres trigger membrane receptor switch for cartilage repair

doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2026.03.017

Figure Lengend Snippet: Efficacy of mechanically sensitized OBNC microspheres in the treatment of osteoarthritis. A) Diagram of OBNC microspheres self-adaptive filling of a cartilage injury site to promote cartilage repair and regeneration. B) Representative images of H&E staining. C) OARSI scores of articular cartilage in each group. D) Representative images of safranin O-fast green staining. E) Relative glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content in each group. F) Representative sections showing TUNEL staining for apoptotic cells. G) Quantification of TUNEL-positive cells. H) Representative sections showing Collagen II staining for chondrocytes. I) Relative collagen II expression in each group. J) Representative sections showing MMP-13 staining of chondrocytes. K) Relative MMP-13 expression in each group. (ns: non-significant, ∗ P < 0.05, ∗∗ P < 0.01).

Article Snippet: Antigen retrieval was performed by microwaving in citrate buffer for 10 min. Endogenous peroxidase activity was blocked by incubating the sections with 3% hydrogen peroxide for 10 min, and non-specific binding was blocked with 3% BSA for 1 h. The sections were incubated overnight at 4 °C with primary antibodies to Collagen II and MMP-13 (ServiceBio, China), washed, and incubated for 1 h with HRP-labeled secondary antibodies (ServiceBio, China).

Techniques: Staining, TUNEL Assay, Expressing