Induction of advanced glycation end products and alterations of the tensile properties of articular cartilage

Chen AC, Temple MM, Ng DM, Verzijl N, DeGroot J, TeKoppele JM, Sah RL · Arthritis and Rheumatism

A result that cuts both ways. Ribose treatment raised pentosidine and AGE fluorescence to aged-human levels (p < 0.001) and produced a 60% increase in dynamic modulus and a 35% increase in strength — cartilage got stiffer and stronger — alongside a 25% fall in strain at failure. The authors note the added strength may partly offset degeneration, while the loss of extensibility makes the tissue brittle and prone to stress concentration and fracture.

Population

Adult bovine articular cartilage from three knees — 45 osteochondral blocks cut into four layers — incubated with 0.6 M ribose for 86 hours to reach the AGE levels found in aged human cartilage

Intervention

Induced AGE crosslinking

Comparator

Control incubation

Limitations

Bovine explants and a laboratory sugar, 14 to 15 samples per group per layer, and the ribose effect did not reach significance in the most superficial layer. The authors note that human cartilage loses tensile strength with age while AGEs accumulate — the opposite of what ribose did here — so glycation is unlikely to be directly responsible for that age-related loss. Whether brittleness or added strength dominates in a living joint is not settled by a materials test. Arthritis Foundation, NIH, NSF and Dutch research funding.