Cytochemical analysis of the non-tenocyte differentiation of TSCs from young (2.5 months) and aging (9 months) mice (G-L).

<p>TSCs were analyzed for their ability to undergo multi-differentiation by incubating in specific differentiation induction media and staining with Oil Red O (<b>G</b>, <b>H</b>), Safranin O (<b>I</b>, <b>J</b>) and Alizarin Red S (<b>K</b>, <b>L</b>). Evidently, young TSCs in culture differentiated more extensively into adipocytes (<b>G</b>), chondrocytes (<b>I</b>), osteocytes (<b>K</b>) than their counterparts—aging TSCs (<b>H</b>, <b>J</b>, <b>L</b>). Semi-quantitation (<b>M</b>) of the positively stained regions was performed by analyzing 12 different images of each tendon section. Data are mean ± SD, and *<i>P</i> < 0.05, compared to young TSCs.