Tiam Mana Saffari

196 CHAPTER 9 Functional outcome measurements Cross-sectional tibial muscle area No significant differences between the groups were found (Figure 2). Within group comparisons only showed significant differences between the consecutive time points zero and two weeks after surgery for autografts, allografts and allografts seeded with differentiated MSCs. The lowest tibial muscle area in all groups was reached at two weeks (40-60% of the unoperated side) and improved upto 16 weeks, with a cross- sectional tibial muscle area ratio of approximately 75%. Figure 2. Cross-sectional tibial muscle area ratios (R/L) over time. No significant differences were found between groups. Autografts (+15.77 ±6.56%) and unseeded allografts (+11.33 ±9.22%) had the strongest increase in muscle area between 8 and 12 weeks, while allografts seeded with undiffer- entiated MSCs (+16.13 ±3.83%) and differentiated MSCs (+10.87 ±9.29%) experienced their strongest increase between 4 and 8 weeks after surgery. uMSCs: undifferentiated MSCs, dMSCs: differentiated MSCs, error bars: Standard error of the mean.