Human Articular Cartilage Proteoglycans Are Not Undersulfated in Osteoarthritis

Chondroitin sulfate is the major constituent of cartilage. Inadequate sulfate availability results in the production of undersulfated proteoglycans. In osteoarthritis, there is a net loss of articular cartilage proteoglycans. Theoretically, it is possible that during the progress of disease undersul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Connective Tissue Research 2007-01, Vol.48 (1), p.27-33
Main Authors: Qu, Cheng-Juan, Rieppo, Jarno, Hyttinen, Mika M., Lammi, Mikko J., Kiviranta, Ilkka, Kurkijärvi, Jatta, Jurvelin, Jukka S., Töyräs, Juha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Articular cartilage
Biochemistry
biokemi
Cartilage, Articular - metabolism
cell research
cellforskning
Chondroitin Sulfate
Chondroitin Sulfates - metabolism
Disaccharides - analysis
Humans
Middle Aged
Orthopaedics
ortopedi
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis, Knee - metabolism
proteoglycan
Proteoglycan Sulfation
Proteoglycans - chemistry
Proteoglycans - metabolism
sulfation
Sulfuric Acid Esters - analysis
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Summary:Chondroitin sulfate is the major constituent of cartilage. Inadequate sulfate availability results in the production of undersulfated proteoglycans. In osteoarthritis, there is a net loss of articular cartilage proteoglycans. Theoretically, it is possible that during the progress of disease undersulfated glycosaminoglycans are synthesized producing proteoglycans with poorer biological properties. In this study, we tested whether in early human osteoarthritic articular cartilage (Mankin's score of 2 and 3) or more advanced disease (Mankin's score over 3), there are proteoglycans that contain a higher relative amount of nonsulfated chondroitin disaccharide isomer in their chondroitin sulfate chains by analyzing the molar ratios of chondroitin sulfate disaccharide isoforms with fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis. Our results indicated that the nonsulfated disaccharide of chondroitin sulfate formed in average only 1-2% of the total chondroitin sulfate. More important, the molar ratio of nonsulfated disaccharide did not appear to be increased in the osteoarthritic articular cartilage. We conclude that undersulfation of articular cartilage proteoglycans is not present in the human osteoarthritic joint.
ISSN:0300-8207
1607-8438
1521-0456
1607-8438
DOI:10.1080/03008200601044128