Fig. 1

Chondrogenesis of culture-expanded chondrocytes in 3D pellets propagated in chondrogenic medium. a Representative bright light microscopy images of histological sections, stained for proteoglycans with Alcian blue and the nuclei counterstained with Sirius red, corresponding to “Group A” and “Group B” with high and low chondrogenic potential, respectively. b Semi-quantitative analysis representing the histological scoring of Alcian blue stained 3D pellets demonstrated significant differences between the two groups. Scale bar: 200 μm and significance level, p (**) < 0.005