For apoptosis detection the histological sections were deparaffinized and washed in PBS (Biochrom, Berlin Germany). The chondrocytes were stained using the In Situ Cell Death TMR kit (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) following the manufacturer’s instructions. The sections were covered with ROTI-Mount FlourCare DAPI (Carl Roth GmbH u. Co. KG, Karlsruhe, Germany). Afterwards, the fluorescence images were analyzed by cell counting using ImageJ for Windows. TUNEL- and DAPI-positive cells were put into relation ((TUNEL positive cells/total number of cells) *100) [36 (link)].
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