The role of cytokines in arthritic diseases: in vitro and in vivo measurements of cartilage degradation.

The injection of partially purified porcine synovial catabolin/IL-1 alpha intra-articularly in rabbits resulted in a 50% loss of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) after 3 days. An increase in the synovial fluid content of GAG was found, and 35SO4 incorporation into proteoglycan was inhibited. Measurements were also made of the GAG loss from articular cartilage into the synovial fluid in human rheumatoid (RA) and osteoarthritic (OA) patients. Very high levels of GAG content in the synovial fluid was found, and calculations were made of the half-life of the cartilage proteoglycan during the active phases of the disease. Estimation of the synovial fluid GAG is believed to be a simple and quantitative method for monitoring the effectiveness of cartilage-"sparing" anti-arthritic drugs.