An Automated Histologic System for 3D Histomorphometry of the Mouse Knee Available to Purchase

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that is a leading cause of adult pain and disability in Western countries¹. Clinically, several structural features of the joint are important in diagnosis, prognosis and evaluation of treatment efficacy, e.g. cartilage volume, homogeneity and joint space narrowing^2,3. In animal models of OA, structural features such as bone defects and cartilage changes are commonly investigated using histomorphometry, a technique that uses stereological point counting and manual tracing of regions of interest to extract 3-dimensional (3D) geometrical properties from 2D histology slides. This is time-consuming and subject to inter-observer variations, hence limiting precision ^4,5. Therefore, a technique for rapidly imaging joint structures in 3D at high resolution, including articular cartilage and subchondral bone, is currently needed in pre-clinical OA research.