Enhanced levels of non-enzymatic glycation and pentosidine crosslinking in spontaneous osteoarthritis progression.

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that heightened advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) content in cartilage accelerates the progression of spontaneous osteoarthritis (OA) in the Hartley guinea pig (HGP) model.

METHODS

Twenty-eight male, 3-month-old HGPs were used. Eight were left untreated as a baseline control group and sacrificed at 3 months of age (n = 4) and 9 months of age (n = 4; age-matched controls). The other 20 HGPs received intra-articular knee injections in the right knee whereas the left knees acted as contra-lateral non-injected controls. Injections consisted of 100 μl phosphate buffered saline (PBS; n = 10) or PBS+2.0 M D-(-)-Ribose (n = 10). Injections were given once weekly for 24 weeks. At the end of the treatment period, the tibiae were fixed with formalin, scanned with microCT for sub-chondral bone mineral density, and then histological slides were prepared, stained with Safranin-O with Fast Green counter stain and scored using the OARSI-HISTOgp scheme. Cartilage pentosidine (established biomarker for AGEs) content, collagen content (% dry mass), glucosaminoglycan GAG-to-collagen ratio (μg/μg), GAG-to-DNA ratio and DNA-to-collagen ratio were measured.

RESULTS

Pentosidine content increased greatly due to PBS + Ribose injection (P < 0.0001) and reached levels found in cartilage from 80-year-old humans. Surprisingly, mean OARSI-HISTOgp scores for both the injected and contra-lateral controls in the PBS + Ribose group were not detectably different, nor were they different from the mean score for the age-matched control group.

CONCLUSION

AGEs accumulation due to intra-articular ribose-containing injections in the HGP model of spontaneous knee OA did not enhance disease progression.