Representative histologic staining (hematoxylin and eosin; ×100) of the ankle joints in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA)

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Taken from "Treatment with recombinant interferon-β reduces inflammation and slows cartilage destruction in the collagen-induced arthritis model of rheumatoid arthritis"

Arthritis Research & Therapy 2004;6(3):R239-R249.

Published online 23 Mar 2004

PMCID:PMC416442.

Copyright © 2004 van Holten et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

At day 7 after the start of treatment with IFN-β, mice were sacrificed and subjected to histopathological examination. In the control CIA mice treated with saline, massive cellular infiltration and erosion of bone were observed in the ankle joint. In CIA mice treated with the highest dose of IFN-β (2.5 μg per injection per mouse), limited hyperplasia of the intimal lining layer and cell infiltration of the synovial sublining were detected and a decrease in bone erosions was observed. Infiltration of inflammatory cells of the joints was scored from 0 to 4 in a blinded manner as described in Materials and methods. A significant reduction in inflammatory cells was observed for the treatment groups treated with 2.5 μg and 1.25 μg IFN-β in comparison with controls (= 0.04). *Statistically significant difference.