The infrapatellar fat pad induces inflammatory and degradative effects in articular cells but not through leptin or adiponectin.

Objectives: Based on a novel approach suggesting a role of adipose tissue in osteoarthritis (OA), we aimed to determine whether the infrapatellar fat pad (IFP) may affect joint cell functions through adipokines.

Methods: The conditioned media of IFP and subcutaneous adipose tissue from OA patients were used to determine the production of leptin and adiponectin, and to stimulate chondrocytes and fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). Blocking experiments were carried out to evaluate the contribution of adipokines to IFP effects.

Synovial fluid levels of adipokines in osteoarthritis: Association with local factors of inflammation and cartilage maintenance.

The role of body weight in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) - previously considered the sole factor in the association between obesity and OA - is being re-evaluated as the contribution of adiposity to the cartilage degenerative process becomes clearer. The current study has been undertaken to better understand the role of adipose-derived proteins, namely adipokines, in OA. For this purpose, we investigated in patients with OA the relationships between the joint levels of leptin, adiponectin and resistin and those of factors involved in inflammation and cartilage maintenance.

Association between adiponectin and cartilage degradation in human osteoarthritis.

Objective: Conflicting findings raise questions about the role of adiponectin in osteoarthritis (OA). The current study aimed to investigate in OA patients the association between the production of adiponectin and the grade of cartilage destruction, and to provide functional evidence for a potential role of adiponectin in OA.

Design: The expression of adiponectin was examined by immunohistochemistry in cartilage obtained from healthy individuals (n = 2; ages 56 and 41 years; 1 male and 1 female) and OA patients (n = 11; ages 64-79 years; 2 male and 9 female).

Obesity affects the chondrocyte responsiveness to leptin in patients with osteoarthritis.

Introduction: Increasing evidence support the regulatory role of leptin in osteoarthritis (OA). As high circulating concentrations of leptin disrupt the physiological function of the adipokine in obese individuals, the current study has been undertaken to determine whether the elevated levels of leptin found in the joint from obese OA patients also induce changes in the chondrocyte response to leptin.

Methods: Chondrocytes isolated from OA patients with various body mass index (BMI) were treated with 20, 100 or 500 ng/ml of leptin.

Pefloxacin-induced achilles tendon toxicity in rodents: biochemical changes in proteoglycan synthesis and oxidative damage to collagen.

Despite a relatively low incidence of serious side effects, fluoroquinolones and the fluoroquinolone pefloxacin have been reported to occasionally promote tendinopathy that might result in the complication of spontaneous rupture of tendons. In the present study, we investigated in rodents the intrinsic deleterious effect of pefloxacin (400 mg/kg of body weight) on Achilles tendon proteoglycans and collagen. Proteoglycan synthesis was determined by measurement of in vivo and ex vivo radiosulfate incorporation in mice.