Histomorphological Assessment of Murine TMJ

TMJ specimens were harvested from mice immediately after sacrifice and kept in 4% paraformaldehyde solution overnight at 4 °C. The decalcification, dehydration, and paraffin embedding of TMJ samples were performed following our previously established protocols.^{8 ,32 (link)} The paraffin-embedded TMJ samples were cut into 5-micron sections and stained using a safranin O & fast green staining kit (Solarbio, Cat#G1371) as previously described.²³ The SO&FG-stained sections were evaluated according to the OARSI scoring system in a double-blinded manner. The Safranin O-positive cartilage areas were determined by image J (version 1.53k) as previously described.^{47 (link)}