Fig. 4

The mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the knees of the mice. Relative gene expression levels of inflammatory cytokines in the articular cartilages of the sham-operated or surgically destabilized mice that were treated with GE-P (100 and 300 mg/kg/day), GE-L (100 and 300 mg/kg/day), and celecoxib (10 mg/kg/day). The normalized gene expression levels are expressed as ratios of the copy number of mRNA to that of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) cDNA. The mRNAs of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β (a), IL-6 (b), and TNF-α (c) were significantly elevated after saline-treatment (ACLT) when compared to the vehicle-treated mice, confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). **p <0.01, significant difference when compared with the vehicle control (Sham). ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001, significant differences when compared with the saline-treated (ACLT) group