Figure 2

Fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis analysis of hyaluronidase, chondroitinase, keratanase II, and endo-β-galactosidase digestion products. Quantitation of levels of (a,b) hyaluronan and chondroitin sulphate (CS) disaccharides, (c,d) nonreducing terminal sugars of CS, and (e,f) keratan sulphate in autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) repair and cadaveric control tissues. Data are expressed as micrograms of disaccharide per milligram of wet weight of cartilage tissue. For each biopsy, the data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation of the replicate measurements. Differences between the ACI repair and cadaveric tissues were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test (p < 0.05%). ΔDi0S, unsulphated chondroitin sulphate disaccharide; ΔDi4S, chondroitin-4 sulphate disaccharide; ΔDi6S, chondroitin-6 sulphate disaccharide; ΔDiHA, hyaluronan disaccharide; GalNAc, N-acetylgalactosamine.