Research Paper Advance Articles
Blood vessel and osteocyte networks concurrently rearrange during bone maturation and decline during aging in the femur of male mice
Figure 6. Hypoxia detection and VEGFA expression in osteocytes. (A) Phalloidin labeling in a growing animal showing numerous connections between osteocyte dendrites (white) and blood vessels (arrows). (B) Vegfa gene expression. (C) Representative images for BNIP3 immunofluorescence for the 4 groups, BNIP3 labeling appears in red, nuclei appear in blue. (D) Quantification of BNIP3-positive osteocytes (Ocy) based on immunofluorescence (IF). (E) Representative images for EF5 detection for the growing and mature groups, positive cells appear in red (filled arrowhead), the empty arrowhead shows a negative cell, nuclei appear in blue. The data are presented as mean ± s.d. Statistical analyses: KW, Dunn’s multiple comparison test with the mature group as reference, *p < 0.05.