μCT was applied to quantify the concurrent changes of subchondral bone and meniscal ossicles. Knee joints were harvested from additional mice (n = 5 animals) at 3-month age for ex vivo μCT analyses (MicroCT 35, Scanco Medical AG, Switzerland). The joints were scanned at 6 μm isotropic voxel size and smoothed by a Gaussian filter (Sigma = 1.2, support = 2.0). The regions of interest were contoured at a threshold corresponding to 30% of the maximum image gray scale. For subchondral bone plate thickness analysis, cortical bone of the tibia plateau on the central loading regions of both the medial and lateral sides was contoured, following the established procedure.89 (link) Thickness was calculated via 3D standard bone microstructural analysis provided by the manufacturer (Scanco Medical AG). For subchondral trabecular bone analysis, the regions of interest (ROIs) were defined as the trabecular bone within the entire load-bearing region on both medial and lateral sides.90 (link) For each ROI, microstructural parameters, including bone volume fraction, trabecular number, and trabecular thickness, were calculated via 3D standard trabecular bone micro-structural analysis, as provided by the manufacturer.