Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 12 pp 5775—5797

Figure 6. The effects of macrophage coculture on NCs. (A) NC indicates normal chondrocytes cultured alone, NC+NM indicates coculture of normal chondrocytes with M0 macrophages, NC+AM indicates coculture of normal chondrocytes with M1 macrophages, NC+AST indicates normal chondrocytes with astaxanthin, NC+NM+AST indicates coculture of normal chondrocytes with M0 macrophages with astaxanthin, and NC+AM+AST indicates coculture of normal chondrocytes with M1 macrophages with astaxanthin. (B) CCK8 was used to detect the activity of chondrocytes in each group. (C) The levels of chondrocyte inflammatory factors (IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) in each group were detected by ELISA. (D) Apoptosis rate of chondrocytes in each group was detected by flow cytometry with annexin V-FITC/PI analysis. (E) Western blot was used to detect the expression level of chondrocyte-related proteins in each group. The data are represented as the mean ± S.D. of three independent experiments (n = 3). ns: Not significant; *p < 0.05 vs NC group; **p < 0.01 vs NC group; ***p < 0.001 vs NC group; ^#p < 0.05 vs NC+AM group; ^##p < 0.01 vs NC+AM group.