Low molecular mass trypsin inhibitors in normal and osteoarthritic human articular cartilage.

A modified radial diffusion assay was used for the direct semiquantitative determination of low molecular mass trypsin inhibitors in small samples of human cartilage. The low molecular mass trypsin inhibitor in articular cartilage of normal human femoral heads is not distributed evenly but occurs in areas of low, medium and high content. The weight-bearing area of the femoral head belongs among the regions with low inhibitor content. The results obtained with osteoarthritic femoral heads showed that the inhibitor content in osteoarthritic cartilage is significantly lower than that in normal articular cartilage (p less than 0.1%).