Fig. 4

Early intervention reduced axial disease in more severely affected mice. a IVD destruction is strongly correlated with bone erosion (circle), cartilage damage (square) and excessive tissue formation (triangle) in long-term vehicle-treated PGISp mice (N = 7). The positive correlation is also present in the ETN + PRD group, with the exception of bone erosion (N = 8) b. PGISp mice in vehicle group were sub-grouped into low disc destruction and high disc destruction (H-Vehicle, filled circle, N = 4) in relation to the median score (1.50). ETN + PRD-treated mice were split into low disc destruction and high disc destruction (H-ETN + PRD, filled square, N = 4) in relation to the median score (0.66): Semi-quantitative histological scores for c IVD destruction, d percentage of affected IVDs, e inflammation, f bone erosion g cartilage damage and h excessive tissue formation. Each symbol represents one mouse in the group and the results are presented as mean ± SD. The statistical significance of data was analysed by Mann-Whitney analysis