*2.7. Histomorphometry*

The mean intensities of SOX9 and type-II collagen immunostaining (ratio of positively stained surface to the total surface) were assessed at four randomized locations for each replicate condition as previously described [21–23]. Analyses were accomplished by using SIS AnalySIS (Olympus, Hamburg, Germany) and Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems Software CS2, Unterschleissheim, Germany) [21,23].
