Fig. 1

DLX5 over-expression enhanced the chondrogenic differentiation in SCAPs. a DLX5 expression during chondrogenic differentiation as detected by real-time RT-PCR. b, c Real-time RT-PCR and Western blot results showed the DLX5 expression in SCAPs. The relative protein levels quantified by densitometry and normalized to GAPDH. d, e Alcian Blue staining and quantitative analysis results show that DLX5 over-expression enhanced chondrogenic differentiation in SCAPs. f–h Real-time RT-PCR results show that DLX5 over-expression upregulated the expression of COL2 (f), COL5 (g), and SOX9 (h) in SCAPs. i Alcian Blue and Picro Sirius Red staining results of chondrogenesis induced pellet. Scale bar, 100 μm. GAPDH was used as an internal control. One-way ANOVA or Student’s t test analysis was performed to determine the statistical significance. All error bars represent s.d. (n = 3). *P ≤ 0.05. **P ≤ 0.01