Gene expression analysis.

<p>The mRNA expression of PBMCs in both normoxic and hypoxic culture (24h). BMP2 (p = 0.0007), BMP6 (p = 0.0004), GDF5 (p = 0.002) and COL1 (p = 0.046) normalized to B2M housekeeping gene. Level of statistical significance; * p<0.05, ** p<0.001 and *** p<0.0001 with biological n = 4 and technical n = 3.</p

Quantification of the repair tissue.

<p>(A) The ICRS score assessing the integration of the cell-scaffold construct into the medial femoral condyles. (B) Mechanical stiffness and (C) histological evaluation based on the modified O'Driscoll scoring system. (D) Summary of the healing with repair tissue in the defect when 100% is the total defect area. (E) Summary of the neocartilage formation in the articular cartilage surface when 100% is the total defect area. There was no significant difference between the test groups for these measurements.</p

Analysis of the defect repair.

<p>(A) Representative images of an average sample of each treatment group showing the macroscopic surface repair in femoral condyles. (B) Osteochondral healing of each treatment group stained with Safranin O/Fast Green. The scale bar represents the radius of the initial defect (6.0 mm). Some of the findings include: neocartilage formation on the surface of the defect (red/black vertical arrow) and remnants of the biomaterial (black horizontal arrow). (C) Safranin O/Fast Green stained high magnification (20x) images of the articular cartilage healing in the surface and in the subchondral bone where remnants of the biomaterial can be found. (D) Collagen type II staining and (E) Collagen type I staining at the repair site and within the remnants of the collagen biomaterial.</p

Peripheral blood mononuclear cell characterization.

<p>(A) Fluorescent labelling of fresh PBMC in suspension and adherent PBMC in both normoxia and hypoxia comparing hematopoietic and mesenchymal cell surface markers (n = 4). Representative images of PBMCs after 12 days growing in (B) normoxia and (C) hypoxia (scale bar 50 μm).</p

XRD analysis showing phase purity of HA coating after plasma-spraying on to stainless steel discs.

<p>In this sample, crystallinity of the HA was 99.6% following plasma-spraying. The brown line shows the experimental XRD scan of the sample and the vertical blue lines indicate the match with Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards reference HA. Standard tricalcium phosphate (red) and calcium oxide phosphate (green) are also shown.</p

Silicon adsorbed onto HA-coated stainless steel discs following incubation in silica dispersions containing (A) 1 to 42 mM Si and (B) 6 to 12 mM Si.

<p>Data were corrected for adsorbed Si from the control (0 mM Si) solution. Data are means ± SD of <i>n</i> = 4 discs per treatment.</p

²⁹Si NMR spectra (99.35 MHz) at 25°C of a) 6 and b) 42 mM silica dispersions.

<p><u>Q</u>^<i>n</i> represents a Si atom with <i>n</i> coordinated -OSi groups.</p

Number of vinculin plaques per human osteoblast cell after 48 h growth on HA-coated discs treated with 0, 6 or 42 mM silica dispersion.

<p>Plaques were sorted A) by shape (long, short or punctuate) and B) by cell location (peripheral, nuclear or cytoplasmic). Significant differences (<i>P</i> ≤ 0.05) between silica treatment and control (0 mM Si) are represented by an asterisk.</p