Fig. 4

Cartilage repair score of the regenerated tissue. Individual scores are represented as dots (4 weeks) and squares (12 weeks) with the arithmetic mean of the untreated and treated groups shown as horizontal bars. The scores (maximum 24) represent the quality of the repaired cartilage tissue and is characterized by cellular morphology, safranin-O staining, surface regularity, structural integrity, thickness, bonding to the adjacent cartilage, hypocellularity, chondrocyte clustering and freedom from degenerative changes in adjacent cartilage. No significant (n.s.) difference within a group or between the three groups is given in the two timepoints