Fig. 6.

Time dependent release of aggrecan constituents into explant culture media. (A) Cartilage explants (n = 3) were cultured from 2 up to 22 days. The amounts of sGAG (mean ± SD) released at each day of culture was measured by the DMMB assay for all treatment groups: control (N), injury alone (I), cytokine (C), injury + cytokines (IC), Dex (D), injury + Dex (ID), cytokines + Dex (CD), and injury + cytokines + Dex (ICD). The release of sGAG was elevated with cytokine treatment; the addition of Dex reduced this release. (B) Medium samples were deglycosylated and run (44–100 μL medium/lane) on 3–8% Tris-acetate SDS-gels and applied for Western blot using ARGS-aggrecan N-terminal neoepitope antibodies. Bovine protein fragments (previously described [21]) and their molecular weight in kDa are shown at the right. CS2 = chondroitin sulfate region 2. Cyt = cytokine treatment, Inj = applied injury, Dex = Dex treatment.