Fig. 2.

HPLC analysis of the sulfation pattern of GAG disaccharides. A HPLC analysis was performed on the CS (a–c) and HS (d–f) disaccharide units contained in the GAG chains isolated from cartilages of CT donors (n = 7) and OA patients (n = 11), to determine the relative composition of each disaccharide unit: non-sulfated (NoS) (a, d), monosulfated (MonoS) (b, e), and disulfated (DiS) (c, f). Each sample was analyzed twice independently. The value of a GAG sample was the mean of 3 values obtained from 3 independent experiments. All values per group are expressed as a mean ± SEM. The values of the CT group were compared to the value obtained for the different parts of OA cartilages, i.e., the femur (F), tibial plateau (TP), and patella (P), and to the mean of the 3 parts from each OA patient (OA). P values were calculated using an ordinary one-way ANOVA test followed by pairwise comparisons using the Dunnett test: *< 0.05, **< 0.01, ***< 0.001, ****< 0.0001