Cobra exxim

After anesthetization using tiletamine/zolazepam (Zoletil; Virbac Laboratories, Carros, France), the mice were placed on the specimen tray for measurements. All mice were placed carefully in the same position. Right femur BMD and % fat were measured using on-board PIXI-mus software for small animals (GE Lunar, Madison, USA). Transverse micro-CT images of the right femur sample were scanned using a micro-CT in the GSTEP (INVEON, SIEMENS, Germany) with a voltage of 60 kV, a current of 400 µA, an exposure time of 400 ms, a magnification of M-H, a CCD readout of 1280 × 1280 and a rotation steps of 360. Reconstruction was performed using Inveon Research Workplace and COBRA_Exxim (SIEMENS, Germany).

Excess muscle tissues were removed from the entire right knee joint of the mice and fixed in 10% formalin overnight. The specimens were scanned using a microcomputer (Inveon PET.SPECT.CT, Siemens). The images were scanned (Inveon Acquisition Workplace), reconstructed (COBRA_Exxim, Siemens), and further analyzed using the calculation software (Ineon Research Workplace). The X-ray current and voltage were set to 500 μA and 80 kV, respectively, and the resolution was 8.5 μm/μm/pixel. The sagittal view of the entire medial compartment of the tibial subchondral bone was used for the 3D histomorphometry analysis, and the parameters of bone volume/total tissue volume (BV/TV), subchondral bone plate thickness (SBP.Th), and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) were analyzed.