Inhibitors of hyaluronan export from hops prevent osteoarthritic reactions.

Scope: An early reaction in osteoarthritic chondrocytes is hyaluronan overproduction followed by proteoglycan loss and collagen degradation. We recently found that hyaluronan is exported by the ATP-binding cassette transporter multidrug resistance associated protein 5 (MRP5) in competition with cGMP and that some phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors also inhibited hyaluronan export. These inhibitors also prevented osteoarthritic reactions in cartilage.