Tissue isolation
The rats were deeply anesthetized with sevoflurane-oxygen mixture and
euthanized by cervical dislocation on day 28 after MIA/saline injection.
The entire knee joint, the ipsilateral lumbar L3‐L5 dorsal root ganglia
(DRG) and the lumbar region of the spinal cord (L3-L5) were rapidly
dissected. The DRGs were isolated using the last rib (T13) as a
localization marker. One half of the knee was used for quantitative
real-time qRT-PCR analysis of inflammatory mediators and the other half
was used for redox status analysis. The tissue samples were placed in
individual tubes, fresh frozen, and stored at −80°C until use.