Fig. 3

Relative gene expression of several marker genes of cartilage homeostasis. The relative gene expression of targets was calculated by dividing the expression of the gene of interest by the geometric mean of the expression of the reference genes. All target genes showed a tendency to downregulation in the Pycnogenol® group (n = 14) in relation to the control group (n = 14). The relative gene expression of the particular targets in the control group is referred to as “1”. Calculations and box-and-whisker-plots were made with the REST2009® software. The dashed lines in the boxes symbolize the median of the relative expressions