Fig. 1

Separation and acquisition of cartilage zone by laser capture microdissection (LCM). a, A cryosection prepared for LCM was mounted on a glass slide and set on an LCM device. A transparent plastic film with a transparent plastic base was placed on the section, and cartilage zones were identified through the film and the base based on histological features. S, M and D indicate the superficial, middle and deep zones, respectively. White broken lines indicate borders between cartilage zones. b, The zone of interest was fixed to the film by shooting with a laser. The laser was shot multiple times until the entire cartilage zone was attached to the film. The array of spots indicated by yellow arrowheads are the laser shot marks. c, After laser shooting, any unnecessary cartilage zones were removed, and only the zone of interest that had become attached to the film was obtained. Acquisition of a superficial zone from a cryosection prepared from preserved areas of OA cartilage is shown. The bold black arcs indicated by blue arrowheads are the mark on the plastic film (Original magnification, X 2)