Figure 4

Inhibition of IL-1-induced proteoglycan depletion in immature meniscal fibrocartilage. (a) Sulfated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) contents of middle-zone meniscal fibrocartilage explants. § †, and ‡ indicate P < 0.05 vs. IL-1 for IL-1 + matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) inhibitor, IL-1 + broad-spectrum inhibitor, and untreated, respectively. (b) Aggrecan G1 fragments and decorin core protein in day 0 and day 8 explants. A 5 μg sample of extracted sGAG, pooled from six explants per condition, were loaded in each lane. The doublet migrating at about 65 kDa was confirmed as the G1-NITEGE product (not shown). The migration of globular protein standards are shown at left. Below blots are sGAG contents of the explant extracts from day 8.