Statistical analysis
All statistical tests were performed using SigmaPlot 11 software (Systat Software Inc., Richmond, CA, USA), whereas data were plotted using GraphPad Prism (version 10.1.0; GraphPad Software, Inc., La Jolla, CA). Results are presented as group means ± SEM obtained from groups of 6-10 animals (group sizes were chosen according to our preliminary behavioural experiments in the MIA-induced OA model). Statistical analysis was performed separately for the results of male and female rats. Data were tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test (P > 0.05). For the behavioural analysis, statistical significance was tested using a two-way ANOVA with repeated measures (treatment was the between-subjects factor and time was the within-subjects factor). To assess the overall magnitude of MIA-induced changes and the effects of drug treatments in the weight-bearing and von Frey tests over time, the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated for each rat using the trapezoidal method. One-way ANOVA was used to compare AUC treatment groups within the same sex, whereas two-way ANOVA was used to compare AUC values between treatment and sex groups. For relative mRNA expression levels and markers of redox status, statistical significance was tested using one-way ANOVA and Mann-Whitney U test, respectively. The Tukey test was used as a post-hoc test after all ANOVA tests. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant in all tests.