Increased concentrations of neuro-excitatory amino acids in rat anterior cruciate ligament-transected knee joint dialysates: a microdialysis study.
Changes in excitatory amino acid (EAA) levels were examined in the knee joint dialysates of rats with early osteoarthritis (OA). Early OA was induced by anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) transection in one knee and the contralateral knee was used as the sham-operated control, the side for ACL transection being assigned randomly. Twenty weeks after operation, knee joint dialysates were collected by microdialysis and assayed for EAAs by high performance liquid chromatography. The rats were then sacrificed for histopathological examination. Hematoxylin/eosin and Safranin-O staining showed cartilage fibrillation, clustering of chondrocytes, and a reduction in matrix proteoglycans at week 20 in the ACL-transected knee, but not in the sham-operated knee. Levels of glutamate and aspartate in dialysates from the ACL-transected knee were significantly increased by 92 +/- 20.3% or 57 +/- 17.5%, respectively, compared to those in the contralateral sham-operated knee. This increase may contribute to the pathogenesis of early OA.
Jean
Yen-Hsuan
YH
Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Wen
Zhi-Hong
ZH
Chang
Yi-Chen
YC
Huang
Guo-Shu
GS
Lee
Herng-Sheng
HS
Hsieh
Shih-Peng
SP
Wong
Chih-Shung
CS
D000818:Animals; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000601:surgery*; D018846:Excitatory Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D017551:Microdialysis; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D018846:Excitatory Amino Acids