Introduction:
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common age-related disabling locomotor disease characterized by degradation of articular cartilage (1).Clinical assessment of patients with OA is performed by assessing clinical features as: pain and mobility problems caused by joint destruction, and by radiographic method to assess cartilage damage (2).
Materials and Methods:
Our study included 89 cases devised into two major groups: healthy controls (n = 45) (included 40 women, 10 of them were pre-menopause, 5 men) ages (39-70) years, and patients (n = 44) (included 38 women, 8 were pre-menopause, 6 men) ages (42-75) years, with knee pain and radiographic evidence of OA and evaluated upon Kallgren-Lawrence score
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Urinary levels of C-terminal crosslinking telopeptide of collagen type II (CTX-II) as a marker of cartilage degradation was measured by ELISA using Nordic Bioscience Diagnostic Kit, and the concentration of CTX-II (in ng/liter) was standardized on the total urine creatinine (mmoles/liter), and the units for the corrected CTX-II concentration are ng/mmole, and the urinary levels of creatinine (jaffe) were measured by a Hitachi/Roche automated analyzer.
Results:
OA patients showed significant 1.39-fold elevation in U-CTX-II concentration as compared with healthy control group (P < 0.05). and was compared in the two groups in subjects aging above 50 years and was significantly increased in patients as compared with healthy control group (P < 0.05). U-CTX-II levels was elevated significantly with age in healthy control subjects (r = 0.76), and was higher in subjects with higher BMI (r = 0.34), and increased significantly in post-menopausal women as compared with pre-menopausal women (P = 0.0001) in health control subjects.
Discussion:
Our data suggests that the U-CTX-II assay is able to reflect the elevated cartilage destruction occurring in affected joints in patients with active Knee-OA. U-CTX-II levels increased with age suggesting that cartilage degradation is augmented with age, and in patients with higher BMI which is a risk factor affecting OA Patients. And U-CTX-II levels appear to elevate in post-menopausal women suggesting that the risk of knee-OA is elevated after menopause.
Key words: Osteoarthritis, collagen type II, CTX-II
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Professor of Rheumatology – Faculty of Medicine – University of Damascus
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Professor of Biochemistry – Faculty of Pharmacy – University of Damascus