Research Paper Volume 16, Issue 3 pp 2702—2714

Figure 2. miR-146a expression in tendon tissues and tenocytes from rats with tendinopathy. Eight weeks after intratendinous injection of 10 μL collagenase I (0.015 mg/μL), the Achilles tendons were harvested from Sprague-Dawley rats. (A) Representative figures of in situ hybridization of miR-146a in rat tendinopathic tendons with different severity grades. Arrow heads indicate miR-146a- and U6-positive cells. Scale bars represent 50 μm in × 400 magnifications. The higher-magnification views of the red-boxed areas are shown beneath them. (B) miR-146a-positive cells were counted and normalized with U6-counterstained total cells (n=3). Spearman correlation rank test was used. (C) miR-146a expression levels in rat tendinopathic tenocytes primarily cultured from Achilles tendons treated (T) with collagenase I (0.015 mg/μL, 10 μL injection/rat) for 1 week or untreated (Un), as determined by qRT-PCR (n=3 for Un, n=5 for T). Values are represented as the mean ± SEM. **p<0.01.