Fig. 3

Representative images of the subchondral bone and cartilage between varying stages of OA. For the analysis of the trabecular bone microstructure (a-c), compared to healthy control subjects (a), microstructural deterioration was observed in the medial and lateral femoral condyles of patients with mild OA (b). With disease progression, the degree of deterioration was further aggravated (c). For the analysis of the cartilage, there were no significant changes in cartilage thickness or volume in the medial condyle in mild OA subjects (e) compared with control subjects (d), but in the patients with severe OA (f), cartilage thickness was significant thinner than in mild OA and control subjects