Figure 8.

Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). (a) Graphs for cartilage oligomeric protein (COMP) of samples of osteoarthritic cartilage tissue taken from the area adjacent to the main defect (1) and of cartilage tissue with a macroscopically normal appearance (2). Note that the slopes of the graphs, each color representing one PCR reaction, are highly similar. A significant difference between threshold cycle [C(T)] values of (1) and (2) is shown. (b) The decreasing C(T) values of the standard dilution of the housekeeping gene HPRT-1 are shown. (c) Standard curve derived from the standard dilution.