Figure 4From: Anti-inflammatory effect of antidiabetic thiazolidinediones prevents bone resorption rather than cartilage changes in experimental polyarthritisEffect of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone treatment on cartilage changes in arthritic knees. Animals were treated daily for 21 days with rosiglitazone (ROSI) 10 mg/kg (n = 8) or pioglitazone (PIO) 30 mg/kg (n = 8) by oral administration. Control animals with adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) (n = 7) and normal controls (n = 7) were given 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose alone. (a) A representative frontal section of the knee joint showing synovial membrane hyperplasia (MGG [May Grunwald Giemsa] staining, day 21 after sensitization). (b, c) Changes in proteoglycan metabolism in patellar cartilage: (b) sulphated glycosaminoglycan content by the 1,9-dimethylmethylene blue method expressed as μg of glycosaminoglycan per mg of cartilage. Data are expressed as means ± SEM; (c) radiolabelled sulphate incorporation expressed as mean percentage of normal controls. (d) Expression of aggrecan mRNA level normalized to RP29 in cartilage from tibial plateaux (RT-quantitative polymerase chain reaction). Data are expressed as means ± SEM of 4 animals per group. *, P < 0.05 compared with normal controls (ANOVA and Fisher's PLSD post-hoc test).Back to article page