Figure 5: GCs repress hallmark outcomes of perilacunar remodeling in cortical bone.

Representative silver nitrate-stained histological sections of femoral placebo (A,C) and prednisolone (B,D) treated bone after 21 days of treatment showing lacuno-canalicular network distribution and organization differences between trabecular (A,B) and cortical (C,D) compartments (scale bar = 20 μm). (E) Quantification of average percent canalicular area (normalized to total area) and (F) distribution of canalicular orientation in cortical bone (C,D) after 21 days of treatment. XTM was used to determine osteocyte lacunar volume in cortical bone at day 7 (G). Inset graph represents mean lacunar volume plotted against lacunar number as a function of bone volume assessed. Vertical dotted lines signify the lacunar size ranges quantified in the bar graph (25% of the size range in each group). In addition to a shift of the overall lacunar size distribution in cortical bone at day 7, there is a significant increase in the overall percentage of smaller osteocytes due to prednisolone treatment. For all graphs, bars represent mean ± SEM from n ≥ 3, *p-value ≤ 0.05 compared to placebo control.