Figure 5

Resveratrol protected against AGEs-induced degradation of proteoglycan and aggrecan. Porcine cartilage blocks were cultured in 24-well plates and pretreated or not with 50 or 100 μM resveratrol for 24 h and then stimulated or not with 100 μg/ml AGEs for another 72 h. The retained proteoglycan in cartilage explants was monitored by Safranin O staining (upper panel). In parallel, the intensity of aggrecan staining was examined (middle panel). Meanwhile, the release of proteoglycan into the culture medium was determined and normalized to the cartilage weight as described in Materials and Methods (lower panel). The representative data from three independent experiments using different donor cartilage blocks are shown. * denotes the statistical significance (P value < 0.05) as compared to the AGEs-stimulated in the absence of resveratrol treatment.