3. Characterization of the human scapholunate ligament cell
populations and blood vessels
In order to determine the phenotype of the cells found at the different
regions of the SLIL, we first carried out an immunohistochemical
analysis of S100 expression. As shown in Figure 6 and Table 2, our
results show that the zones that were more enriched in S100-positive
cells was M1, followed by D2 and M2, whereas the zone with lower content
of positive cells was D1. Differences between D1 and the rest of SLIL
zones were statistically significant, as well as the differences between
P1 and D2 and M1 and between P2 and D2 and M1. Then, we analyzed the
expression of the undifferentiation marker CD73, and we found that all
regions contained cells showing positive signal for this marker,
although the highest number of positive cells corresponded to D2, and
the lowest, to P2. Differences between D2 and D1, P1 and P2 were
statistically significant (Figure 6 and Table 2).
In order to evaluate the distribution of the blood vessels in the SLIL,
we quantified these structures in each zone of the SLIL, after staining
each vessel by CD34 immunohistochemistry. As shown in Figure 6 and Table
2, our analysis revealed that blood vessels were abundant in D1, D2, P1
and P2, but were very scarce in M1 and M2. Differences between M1 or M2
and the rest of zones were statistically significant.