Cartilage is a specialized connective tissue mainly composed of chondrocytes embedded in a well-developed matrix including collagen type 2, hyaluronan and aggrecan.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by the loss of articular cartilage. This results from an imbalance between synthesis and degradation of the cartilage specific extra-cellular matrix (ECM).
Cytokines produced by the synovium and chondrocytes, especially IL-1β and TNF-α are involved in cartilage degradation and inhibition of ECM synthesis. At the cellular level, IL-1β activates matrix-degrading enzymes and pro-inflammatory markers, while down-regulates expression of matrix components such as collagen type 2 and aggrecan.
Atlantic Bone Screen can test the effect of your compounds on an in-vitro chondrocytes model treated with IL-1β. The modification of key markers is investigated by gene expression analysis.
Gene expression analysis after three days of treatment with IL-1β : Primary rat chondrocytes were treated for three days with IL-1β (10ng/mL) before mRNA extraction and analysis. Gene expression was normalized to housekeeping genes (Rpl19 and bactin) expression and presented as fold change relative to the negative control (CTR-). Results are presented as mean ±SD, n=4. Statistical difference against CTR- was evaluated by Mann-Whitney test, *: p<0.05.