Publications

Abstract OBJECTIVE Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritic disease, and it is a major cause of disability and impaired quality of life in the elderly. OA is a complex disease of the entire joint, including bone and cartilage, thereby presenting alternative approaches for treatment. This review summarizes emerging observations from cell biology […]

Abstract The objective of this work was to investigate whether collagen degradation products in protein extract from joints could provide quantitative information on cartilage damage. Osteoarthritis (OA) was surgically induced in rat knee joints. Joints were isolated 7, 14 and 28 days after surgery for protein extraction and histology. C-terminal telopeptide of type III collagen […]

Abstract OBJECTIVE To review cellular mechanisms that have been proposed to mediate the indirect and direct effects of estrogen on articular cartilage, and to outline the remaining clinical questions that need to be clarified before utilizing the beneficial effects of estrogen for the prevention of osteoarthritis in early postmenopausal women. DESIGN Summary of original research […]

Abstract INTRODUCTION Physiological and pathophysiological cartilage turnover may coexist in articular cartilage. The distinct enzymatic processes leading to irreversible cartilage damage, compared with those needed for continuous self-repair and regeneration, remain to be identified. We investigated the capacity of repair of chondrocytes by analyzing their ability to initiate an anabolic response subsequent to three different […]

Abstract Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of degenerative joint diseases and a major cause of disability and impaired quality of life in the elderly. OA is a complex disease involving both bone and cartilage properties, and may therefore require alternative approaches for treatment. Recent lines of evidence suggest that calcitonin acts on both […]

Abstract OBJECTIVE To investigate whether oral calcitonin treatment influences the increases in type II collagen (CII) degradation and related surface erosions of articular cartilage in ovariectomized rats. METHODS Fifty rats were randomly allocated into 1 of the 5 following intervention groups: sham-operated, ovariectomy, ovariectomy plus subcutaneously implanted 17beta-estradiol pellet, ovariectomy plus 2 mg/kg salmon calcitonin […]

Abstract OBJECTIVE Calcitonin has been suggested to have chondroprotective effects. One signaling pathway of calcitonin is via the second messenger cAMP. We undertook this study to investigate whether increased cAMP levels in chondrocytes would be chondroprotective. METHODS Cartilage degradation was induced in bovine articular cartilage explants by 10 ng/ml oncostatin M (OSM) and 20 ng/ml […]

Abstract OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to investigate collagen metabolism after anabolic and catabolic stimulation of chondrocytes ex vivo. DESIGN Metabolic activities in ex vivo bovine cartilage explants were stimulated with insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) or a combination of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) and oncostatin M (OSM). Supernatants were assessed […]

Abstract OBJECTIVE Aggrecan is the major proteoglycan in articular cartilage and is known to be degraded by various proteases, including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The present study was undertaken to develop immunoassays detecting aggrecan and its fragments generated by MMP and non-MMP-mediated proteolysis. METHODS Two immunoassays were developed: (1) the G1/G2 sandwich assay employing a monoclonal […]

Abstract OBJECTIVE To investigate changes in the circulating levels of the C-telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II) with relation to disease onset and structural damage of cartilage in a rodent model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), and to investigate immunolocalization of the CTX-II epitope in the articular cartilage of affected joints. METHODS Seven-week-old female Lewis rats […]