Yes / Articular cartilage, a connective tissue, contains chondrocytes and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) which aid in
water retention, providing the tissue with its magnificent ability to prevent friction, withstand loads and absorb
compressive shocks however, cartilage, does not have the ability to regenerate and repair. Osteoarthritis (OA) is
a progressive degenerative disease, which includes reduction of cartilage thickness between two bones in a joint,
causing painful bone-to-bone contact. OA affects over 8 million people in the UK alone. , and as the primary causes
are unknown, available treatments including surgical and non-surgical techniques which only reduce the symptoms
created by the disorder instead of providing a cure. This project focused on utilizing TGF-β1, a cytokine found in
elevated amounts in healthy cartilage when compared to degraded cartilage, in order to observe the effects of the
growth factor on both healthy and osteoarthritic chondrocytes. The healthy and the osteoarthritic chondrocytes were
cultured in two different media (DMEM with and without TGF- β1) before utilizing the SpectraMax M2/M2e
plate reader to observe and analyze the effect of TGF-β1 on water retention properties of cells. This has been
achieved by quantifying the GAG content using DMMB dye. Results showed that although TGF-β1 did displayed an
increase in glycosaminoglycan synthesis, the statistical increase was not vast enough for the alternative hypothesis to
be accepted; further experimentation with TGF-β1, alongside other cytokines within the growth factor family is
needed to perceive the true influence of the growth factor on un cured degenerative diseases. It was concluded that
both the healthy and osteoarthritic cells treated with TGF-β1 absorbed considerably more DMMB in comparison to
the cells, suggesting that TGF-β1 indeed works to aid in water retention. TGF-β1 is a key factor to be exploited when
constructing treatments for osteoarthritis
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/16988 |
| Date | 08 June 2018 |
| Creators | Raja, Tehmeena I., Khaghani, Seyed A., Zafar, M.S., Khurshid, Z., Mozafari, M., Youseffi, Mansour, Sefat, Farshid |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted manuscript |
| Rights | © 2018 Elsevier. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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