Fig. 5
scAAV6 treated NP cells and their expression levels of inflammatory, catabolic and matrix proteins. 1 x 105 NP cells from grade III samples were monolayer transduced with scAAV6 [5000 vg/c] and 3D cultured for four weeks in collagen I scaffold. To determine expression levels of inflammatory, catabolic and matrix proteins [pg/ml], ELISA assays were performed using 100 μg of total protein extracts from each sample. Box plots with whiskers min. to max. show the expression levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α (a, b), the catabolic factors ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5 (c, d) and the IVD matrix proteins aggrecan and collagen II (e, f). Data were obtained from three independent experiments, each performed in duplicate (p < 0.05)