Figure 5.

Ubiquitination of haptoglobin (Hp) by Western blot analysis. (A) Representative Western blot image showing that there were decreased levels of ubiquitinated Hpβ in TKR/UKR compared to HCs. Ubiquitination of Hpβ was detected using antiubiquitin antibody after immunoprecipitated Hp had been separated on SDS-PAGE followed by Western blot. (B) Densitometry analysis showing decreased ubiquitination of Hp in TKR (0.22-fold) and UKR (0.37-fold) compared to HCs. (C) Silver-stained image of gel after running SDS-PAGE using purified Hp, indicating lower levels of Hpβ in TKR and UKR patients than HCs. (D) Densitometry analysis of gel image for Hpβ showing lower levels of Hpβ in TKR (0.47-fold) and UKR (0.41-fold) than HCs. (E) Ubiquitination percentages of Hpβ in TKR, UKR, and HCs, showing 45.85% Hpβ) ubiquitinated in TKR and 86.48% in UKR compared to 96.92% in HCs.

Abbreviations: TKR, total knee replacement; UKR, unicompartmental knee replacement; HCs, healthy controls; Ub, ubiquitination.