Fig. 3

Comparison of OCD fragment-derived chondrocyte mRNA expression ex vivo, after alginate bead culture, after monolayer culture, and after monolayer culture followed by successive alginate bead culture. This figure depicts the mRNA expression of aggrecan (a), types I (b), II (c), and X collagen (d) of OCD fragment-derived chondrocytes. (e) gives the ratio of type I to II collagen mRNA expression, which illustrates the balance between a functional chondrocyte phenotype (value < 1) as in intact cartilage and a de-differentiated in vitro phenotype (value > 1). The transition between both phenotypes is indicated by a grey line. Data are shown as box plots with each box representing the 25th and 75th percentile and the whiskers the 10th and 90th percentiles. Solid lines within the box indicate the median. Significant differences of pairwise comparisons are indicated by small letters. E.g. “a” indicates that the comparison of the type I collagen mRNA expression in (b) between analysis 1 (ex vivo) and analysis 3 (monolayer) was significant