Figure 4.

Effect of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone treatment on cartilage changes in arthritic knees. Animals were treated daily for 21 days with rosiglitazone (ROSI) 10 mg/kg (n = 8) or pioglitazone (PIO) 30 mg/kg (n = 8) by oral administration. Control animals with adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) (n = 7) and normal controls (n = 7) were given 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose alone. (a) A representative frontal section of the knee joint showing synovial membrane hyperplasia (MGG [May Grunwald Giemsa] staining, day 21 after sensitization). (b, c) Changes in proteoglycan metabolism in patellar cartilage: (b) sulphated glycosaminoglycan content by the 1,9-dimethylmethylene blue method expressed as μg of glycosaminoglycan per mg of cartilage. Data are expressed as means ± SEM; (c) radiolabelled sulphate incorporation expressed as mean percentage of normal controls. (d) Expression of aggrecan mRNA level normalized to RP29 in cartilage from tibial plateaux (RT-quantitative polymerase chain reaction). Data are expressed as means ± SEM of 4 animals per group. *, P < 0.05 compared with normal controls (ANOVA and Fisher's PLSD post-hoc test).