Williams J D, Whitehead S H, Scott D L, Huskisson E C, Willoughby D A
Biomed Pharmacother. 1987;41(2):89-92.
Cartilage damage in inflammatory arthritis may be mediated by a number of cell types; the macrophage is one of them. To examine their role we developed a new macrophage-cartilage co-culture system on a microscale. This used macrophages derived from the peritoneal cavity of Balb/c mice together with cartilage slices from bovine nasal septa. We examined the effects of macrophages on cartilage proteoglycan loss measured colorimetrically. When chondrocytes were dead, cartilage released proteoglycan; macrophages increase the amount of proteoglycan loss; stimulating macrophages with zymosan further increased proteoglycan loss. With live chondrocytes the situation was different. Macrophages only gave a major increase in cartilage proteoglycan loss when stimulated by zymosan. These results show it is possible to establish a simple model of macrophage-induced cartilage degradation. In this a variety of effects given by macrophages can be demonstrated depending on the presence or absence of live chondrocytes.
炎症性关节炎中的软骨损伤可能由多种细胞类型介导；巨噬细胞就是其中之一。为了研究它们的作用，我们开发了一种新的微观尺度的巨噬细胞 - 软骨共培养系统。该系统使用来自Balb/c小鼠腹腔的巨噬细胞以及牛鼻中隔的软骨切片。我们通过比色法检测了巨噬细胞对软骨蛋白聚糖损失的影响。当软骨细胞死亡时，软骨会释放蛋白聚糖；巨噬细胞会增加蛋白聚糖的损失量；用酵母聚糖刺激巨噬细胞会进一步增加蛋白聚糖的损失。对于活的软骨细胞，情况则不同。只有在酵母聚糖刺激下，巨噬细胞才会使软骨蛋白聚糖的损失大幅增加。这些结果表明，可以建立一个巨噬细胞诱导软骨降解的简单模型。在这个模型中，根据活软骨细胞的有无，可以证明巨噬细胞产生的多种效应。
