OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine if there were variations in chondrocyte viability, matrix glycosaminoglycan (GAG), and water content between different areas of the articular surface of a bovine metatarsophalangeal joint, a common and reliable source of articular cartilage for experimental study, which may compromise the validity of using multiple samples from different site...

Two forms of dermatan sulfate proteoglycans, called DS-PGI and DS-PGII, have been isolated from both bovine fetal skin and calf articular cartilage and characterized. The proteoglycans were isolated using either (a) molecular sieve chromatography under conditions where DS-PGI selectively self-associates or (b) chromatography on octyl-Sepharose, which separates DS-PGI from DS-PGII based on diffe...

OBJECTIVE To assess the ability of nonlinear optical microscopy (NLOM) to image ex vivo healthy and degenerative bovine articular cartilage. METHOD Fresh bovine femoral-tibial joints were obtained from an abattoir. Articular cartilage specimens were harvested from the tibial plateau. Normal and degenerative specimens were imaged by NLOM and subsequently fixed and processed for histological ex...

Osteoarthritis is a complex disease involving the mechanical breakdown of articular cartilage in the presence of altered joint mechanics and chondrocyte death, but the connection between these factors is not well established. Lubricin, a mucinous glycoprotein encoded by the PRG4 gene, provides boundary lubrication in articular joints. Joint friction is elevated and accompanied by accelerated ca...

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) is a protein present in the cartilage matrix and is expressed more abundantly in osteoarthritis cartilage than in healthy cartilage. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) on COMP deposition and the influence of COMP on collagen biochemistry in a long-term 3-dimensional culture. Bovine chondrocyt...

LITTLE was known about the metabolism of articular cartilage till 1936, when Bywaters1 published the first quantitative data on the subject. He reported a well-defined glucolysis, equivalent per cell to that of other adult tissues, but was unable to demonstrate an appreciable utilization of oxygen. It seemed improbable that a tissue without any respiratory ability could synthesise the complex c...

Interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-17 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) are the main proinflammatory cytokines implicated in cartilage breakdown by matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) in arthritic joints. We studied the impact of an anti-neoplastic antibiotic, mithramycin, on the induction of MMPs in chondrocytes. MMP-3 and MMP-13 gene expression induced by IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and IL-17 was downreg...

The delayed Gadolinium-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cartilage (dGEMRIC) method allows for both qualitative and quantitative measurement of the spatial distribution of glycosaminoglycan [GAG] in excised cartilage. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of paraformaldehyde fixation on dGEMRIC measurements. Five bovine and seven human cartilage pieces were punched into 5...