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European Journal of Pharmacology 794 (2017) 8–14

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

European Journal of Pharmacology


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejphar

The combined therapy with chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine sulfate or


chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine hydrochloride does not improve joint
crossmark
damage in an experimental model of knee osteoarthritis in rabbits
Jorge A. Roman-Blas, Aránzazu Mediero, Lidia Tardío, Sergio Portal-Nuñez, Paula Gratal,

Gabriel Herrero-Beaumont , Raquel Largo
Bone and Joint Research Unit. IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz UAM and Cooperative Research Thematic Network on Aging and Frailty (RETICEF), Madrid,
Spain

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: Osteoarthritis is the most common chronic joint disorder especially during aging. Although with controversies,
Osteoarthritis glucosamine, both in its forms of sulfate and hydrochloride, and chondroitin sulfate are commonly employed to
Cartilage damage treat osteoarthritis. Due to the modest improve in the symptoms observed in patients treated with these drugs
Synovial inflammation alone, a formulation combining both agents has been considered. The discrepant results achieved for pain
Subchondral bone
control or structural improvement in osteoarthritis patients has been attributed to the quality of chemical
Chondroitin sulfate
Glucosamine sulfate
formulations or different bias in clinical studies. The current study has been designed to test the effects of two
different combined formulations with adequate pharmaceutical grade of these drugs in osteoarthritic joints, and
to explore the underlying mechanisms modulated by both formulations in different osteoarthritis target tissues.
Knee osteoarthritis was surgically induced in experimental rabbits. Some animals received the combined
therapy (CT)1, (chondroitin sulfate 1200 mg/day + glucosamine sulfate 1500 mg/day), or the CT2 ((chondroitin
sulfate 1200 mg/day + glucosamine hydrochloride 1500 mg/day). Neither CT1 nor CT2 significantly modified
the cartilage damage or the synovial inflammation observed in osteoarthritic animals. Treatments were also
unable to modify the presence of pro-inflammatory mediators, and the synthesis of metalloproteinases in the
cartilage or in the synovium of osteoarthritic animals. Combined therapies did not modify the decrease in the
subchondral bone mineral density observed in osteoarthritic rabbits. Therapies of chondroitin sulfate plus
glucosamine sulfate or chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine hydrochloride failed to improve structural damage
or to ameliorate the inflammatory profile of joint tissues during experimental osteoarthritis.

1. Introduction membrane contributes to this process as a pro-inflammatory cytokine


reservoir, but the mechanism underneath is still unclear. In turn,
Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of morbidity and disability subchondral bone sclerosis is associated with significant articular
in advanced middle aged and elderly wordwide. It is a chronic articular cartilage destruction in the late stages of osteoarthritis (Dieppe,
disorder characterized by progressive cartilage destruction, bone repair 1999; Goldring and Goldring, 2010). Recently, we have demonstrated
response and relevant synovial changes. that an increased remodeling in the subchondral bone also aggravates
Synovitis and subchondral sclerosis have gained attention in cartilage damage during early stages of osteoarthritis (Bellido et al.,
osteoarthritis pathology (Goldring and Goldring, 2010; Samuels 2010b; Calvo et al., 2007; Castañeda et al., 2010).
et al., 2008; Sellam and Berenbaum, 2010). Synovitis occurs in over The goal of treatment for osteoarthritis are to reduce symptoms and
90% of patients with osteoarthritis (Roemer et al., 2011) and is a major slow disease progression. Chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, in its
risk factor associated with both progression of cartilage loss and signs forms of sulfate or hydrochloride, are natural compounds considered as
and symptoms of disease (Sellam and Berenbaum, 2010). Indeed, Symptomatic Slow Acting Drugs for osteoarthritis (SYSADOAS).
synovitis is associated with pain, disease severity and progression, Although the use of these compounds cause a great deal of controversy,
being therefore a potential target for therapy in osteoarthritis. Synovial chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine sulfate and glucosamine hydrochlor-


Correspondence to: Bone and Joint Research Unit, IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Avda. Reyes Católicos, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
E-mail addresses: jaromanblas@gmail.com (J.A. Roman-Blas), aranzazu.mediero@quironsalud.es (A. Mediero), ltardio@fjd.es (L. Tardío), sportal@fjd.es (S. Portal-Nuñez),
paula.gratal@fjd.es (P. Gratal), gherrero@fjd.es (G. Herrero-Beaumont), rlargo@fjd.es (R. Largo).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2016.11.015
Received 19 July 2016; Received in revised form 8 November 2016; Accepted 9 November 2016
Available online 12 November 2016
0014-2999/ © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.
J.A. Roman-Blas et al. European Journal of Pharmacology 794 (2017) 8–14

ide are commonly employed to treat osteoarthritis (Henrotin et al., ments were performed in accordance with Spanish regulations and the
2014). In fact, international guidelines for the treatment of sympto- Guidelines for the Care and use of Laboratory Animals, as drawn up by
matic knee osteoarthritis recommend the use of these products the National Institutes of Health (USA). The protocol was approved by
especially in mild-to moderate osteoarthritis or as a step 1 medication the Institutional Ethics Committee.
(Bruyère et al., 2016; Henrotin et al., 2014). Furthermore, these
compounds have shown to have anti-inflammatory effects when 2.2. Histopathological damage in the experimental model
administered at high doses both in experimental models and in in
vitro studies (Herrero-Beaumont et al., 2008; Largo et al., 2010, 2009; Tissue damage was evaluated by two independent, blinded obser-
Martínez-Calatrava et al., 2010). Glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin vers in paraffin sections of the cartilage and the synovial membrane of
sulfate also attenuated the increased subchondral bone turnover, the rabbits. Femoral cartilage sections of 4 µm were stained with
structural damage and mineralization in early stages of experimental hematoxylin-eosin (H-E) and Alcian blue, and the histopathological
osteoarthritis (Wang et al., 2007). alterations were evaluated using the Mankin's grading system (Mankin
Due to the modest improve in the symptoms observed in patients et al., 1971) as previously published (Alvarez-Soria et al., 2008;
treated with glucosamine sulfate or chondroitin sulfate, a formulation Martínez-Calatrava et al., 2012). The histopathological study for each
combining both agents has been also considered for osteoarthritis, rabbit was carried out in the most damaged zone of the cartilage. A
aiming to achieve a synergistic effect ameliorating the pain and partial score for each category of the Mankin scale (structure abnorm-
improving joint function. Different clinical trials studying these com- alities, cellularity, matrix staining and tidemark integrity) was attrib-
binations have shown discrepant results (Henrotin et al., 2014; uted, and these scores were combined for each section. Synovial
Hochberg et al., 2016; Román-Blas et al., 2016). These discrepancies histopathology was evaluated in H-E stained sections according to
have been attributed to formulation differences, uneven quality of the Krenn scale (Krenn et al., 2002), as previously described (Alvarez-
products tested or other sponsor-dependent bias (Eriksen et al., 2014; Soria et al., 2006; Martínez-Calatrava et al., 2012). Briefly, lining
Herrero-Beaumont et al., 2007; Hochberg et al., 2016; Vlad et al., hyperplasia, fibrovascular alterations at the interstitium, and tissue cell
2007). However, the potential different effects of these combinations infiltration were independently evaluated using 0–3-point subscales,
on the different osteoarthritis target tissues, such as cartilage and where 0 indicates absence, 1 mild, 2 intermediate and 3 strong. The
synovial synthesis of pro-inflammatory and structural mediators, are total score was obtained from the sum of partial grades with a
still unknown. maximum total score of 9.
Thus, in the present study, our aims were to compare the structural
effects of two different combined formulations, chondroitin sulfate plus 2.3. Subchondral bone mineral density (sBMD)
glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine hydro-
chloride of high quality pharmacological profile, in a rabbit model of After death, tibias were carefully dissected and analysed in a
osteoarthritis, and to explore the underlying mechanisms modulated by densitometer PIXImusTM (software v1.4; GE Lunar, Madison, WI,
both formulations in the main target tissues of the disease. USA), as previously described (M Bellido et al., 2010a). For this
purpose, tibias were positioned similarly in the corresponding tray,
2. Material and methods maintaining tibial plateau perpendicularly to the tray surface during
the scanning. Subchondral BMD was measured in the corresponding
2.1. Experimental model of osteoarthritis in rabbits ROI (region of interest, cm2) positioned in parallel with tibial plateau,
in the subchondral bone of each tibia.
In this study, 20 male New Zealand white rabbits (3.0 ± 0.3 kg body
weight) (Granja San Bernardo, Navarra, Spain) were used. Rabbits 2.4. Western blot studies
were allowed to adapt to the facilities for 2 week before osteoarthritis
induction. Animals were then randomly assigned to four different Tissues were homogenized in liquid nitrogen, and total proteins
groups (n =5 each): 1. healthy rabbits (control); 2. rabbits with were extracted as previously described (Martínez-Calatrava et al.,
experimental osteoarthritis (group OA); 3. rabbits with experimental 2012). Protein concentration was determined and subsequently,
osteoarthritis that received the combined therapy 1 with their food 20 μg of total protein from each tissue was resolved on 10% acryla-
(group OA+CT1), consisting in chondroitin sulfate 1200 mg/day plus mide-SDS gels. After transfer to polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)
glucosamine sulfate 1500 mg/day (Tedec-Meiji Farma, S.A. Alcalá de membranes (Millipore, Molsheim, France), membranes were blocked
Henares, Madrid, Spain); and 4. rabbits with experimental osteoar- in 5% skimmed milk in PBS-Tween 20 for 1 h at room temperature and
thritis that received the combined therapy 2 with their food (group OA incubated overnight at 4 °C with anti-interleukin (IL)-1β (1:500, Santa
+CT2), consisting in chondroitin sulfate 1200 mg/day plus glucosa- Cruz Biotechnology, Dallas, TX, USA), cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 (1:500,
mine hydrochloride 1500 mg/day (Droglican, Bioibérica, Barcelona, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS)
Spain). The doses of the drugs employed and the administration via (1:500, Affinity Bioreagents, Golden, CO, USA), metalloproteinase
were chosen based on previously published data where a significant (MMP)-1 (1:500, Chemicon Int, Temecula CA, USA), MMP-3
therapeutic effect was observed (Herrero-Beaumont et al., 2008; Largo (1:2000, Chemicon Int) and MMP-13 (1:200, Calbiochem,
et al., 2010, 2009). Two weeks after starting the treatments, destabi- Darmstadt, Germany). Antibody binding was detected by enhanced
lization surgery was performed in OA and OA+CT groups, by cruciate chemoluminescence using peroxidase-labelled secondary antibodies,
ligament transection and partial medial meniscectomy in both knees of and the results were expressed as arbitrary densitometric units (AU).
each rabbit as previously described (Bellido et al., 2010b; Martínez- Loading control was performed on 15% acrylamide- SDS gels by
Calatrava et al., 2012). Animals were euthanized 12 weeks after the employing EZBlue gel staining reagent (Sigma-Aldrich, Madrid,
osteoarthritis surgery with an overdose of pentobarbital. At this Spain) (Prieto-Potín et al., 2013).
moment, femoral condyles were removed and fixed in 4% buffered
paraformaldehyde, decalcified for 4 weeks in a solution made up of 2.5. Statistical analysis
10% formic acid plus 5% paraformaldehyde, and embedded in paraffin.
The cartilage from the medial zone of the tibias was carefully dissected Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 19.0 soft-
and immediately frozen for protein studies. Furthermore, synovial ware for Windows (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA), and results were
membranes were removed and divided in two pieces, to be processed expressed as the mean ± standard error of mean (S.E.M).
for paraffin embedding or for molecular biology studies. All experi- Comparisons between multiple groups used Kruskal-Wallis tests with

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J.A. Roman-Blas et al. European Journal of Pharmacology 794 (2017) 8–14

Fig. 1. Histopathology of the articular cartilage and the synovial membrane. A-D, alcian-blue stained sections of articular cartilage from OA+CT1 (A and B) and OA+CT2 (C and D). F-I,
Hematoxylin-eosin stained sections of synovial membranes from OA+CT1 (F and G) and OA+CT2 (H and I). E, Analysis of the total Mankin score in the groups studied. J, Analysis of the
global synovitis score employing the Krenn scale in the groups studied. The bars show the mean ± S.E.M. *P < 0.05 vs. control. N=9–10 samples per group. Control, osteoarthritic (OA),
osteoarthritic treated with combined therapy 1 (OA+CT1) and osteoarthritic treated with combined therapy 2 (OA+CT2) rabbits. The corresponding scale bar has been included in each
microphotograph.

Bonferroni correction of post hoc Mann–Whitney U tests. P < 0.05 was observed in the OA+CT1 and OA+CT2 groups were similar to those
considered significant. observed in OA group. As expected, the Mankin score was significantly
increased in OA group in comparison to control one (Fig. 1E). Neither
the combined therapy CT1 nor the combined therapy CT2 groups
3. Results
showed significant differences in the Mankin score when compared to
OA animals (Fig. 1A-E).
3.1. Histopathological assessment of articular cartilage and synovial
Histopathologic analysis of the synovial membranes revealed
membrane
characteristic osteoarthritic lesions in untreated OA rabbits, including
hypercellularity, synovial stromal hyperplasia, increase angiogenesis
In order to assess whether these combined treatments were able to
and extracellular matrix and increase on infiltrating cells in the
modify the histopathological damage in the cartilage and synovial
synovial stroma (Fig. 1F-I). No significant changes were observed in
membranes of the osteoarthritic rabbits, sections of internal femoral
any of the combined therapies applied in comparison with untreated
condyles from right and left knees were stained and Makin score was
rabbits (Fig. 1F-J).
evaluated (Fig. 1A-E). The predominant histopathological findings in
untreated osteoarthritic rabbits were similar to those described in
patients with advanced osteoarthritis, such as cartilage clefts that 3.2. Pro-inflammatory cytokine presence in the cartilage and in the
reached the inner zone, hypocellular cartilage together with frequent synovial membrane
cellular clones, moderate to severe reduction of the matrix staining
score and crossing of the tidemark by blood vessels. Cartilage lesions We studied if any of the combined therapies were able to modify the

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J.A. Roman-Blas et al. European Journal of Pharmacology 794 (2017) 8–14

Fig. 2. COX-2, IL-1β, iNOS, MMP-1, MMP-3 and MMP-13 presence in the articular cartilage. A-F: Densitometric analysis of protein presence in the articular cartilage, assessed by
western-blot. G, representative western-blot images for protein detection in the articular cartilage. EZ Blue stained gel used as protein loading control is also shown. The bars show the
mean ± S.E.M. *P < 0.05 vs. control. N=9–10 samples per group. Control (CTR), osteoarthritic (OA), osteoarthritic treated with combined therapy 1 (OA+CT1) and osteoarthritic treated
with combined therapy 2 (OA+CT2) rabbits.

expression of pro-inflammatory mediators in the articular cartilage and tissues, and we found analogous results (Figs. 2F, G and 3E, F). None
in the synovial membrane of the osteoarthritic joints. The significant of the combined therapies was able to significantly modify the presence
increase in the IL-1β presence observed in the articular cartilage of of these MMPs in the cartilage or in the synovial membrane of the
osteoarthritic rabbits was not modified by any of the combined treated rabbits (Figs. 2 and 3).
therapies (Fig. 2A, G). COX2 synthesis was also increased in articular
cartilage of the osteoarthritis group (Fig. 2B, G) and none of the
combined therapies was able to significantly decrease COX2 levels 3.4. Subchondral bone mineral density, OPG and RANKL synthesis
(Fig. 2B, G). Similar results were observed for iNOS in the articular
cartilage (Fig. 2C, G). The combined therapies were also unable to Since the beneficial effect of chondroitin sulfate or glucosamine
modify IL-1β (Fig. 3A, F) and COX2 (Fig. 3C, B) synthesis in the sulfate in osteoarthritis has been previously attributed to a putative
synovial membrane of osteoarthritic rabbits. decrease in the resorptive activity of the subchondral bone cells (Tat
et al., 2007), we studied whether the combined therapies were able to
modify sBMD in experimental osteoarthritis. DXA analysis on tibias
3.3. MMP presence in the cartilage and in the synovial membrane demonstrated that osteoarthritic rabbits showed a clear decrease in
sBMD at the end of our study in comparison to control animals (0.48 ±
We also investigated whether any of the chondroitin sulfate/ 0.03 for OA vs 0.60 ± 0.03 g/cm2 for control, P < 0.05). None of the
Glucosamine combinations modified the synthesis of different MMPs combined therapies were able to significantly modify the sBMD (0.48 ±
which have been demonstrated to be responsible for joint destruction 0.03 for OA+CT1 and 0.51 ± 0.04 gr/cm2 for OA+CT2, both P > 0.05
during osteoarthritis, such as MMP-1, MMP-3 and MMP-13 in the vs. control).
articular cartilage and the synovial membrane. In the case of MMP-1, We also studied the protein presence of both RANKL and OPG in
we found that both the pro-enzyme and the active form were increased the subchondral bone of these rabbits. These factors are the main
in the articular cartilage of osteoarthritic (Fig. 2G) as well as in the regulators of bone homeostasis, and they have been found to be
synovial membrane (Fig. 3F). When we analysed the expression of dysregulated in the subchondral bone of osteoarthritic rabbits (Lv
MMP-3, we observed similar changes as those described for MMP-1, in et al., 2014). Although we did not observe significant changes in the
both articular cartilage (Fig. 2E, G), and synovial membrane (Fig. 3D presence of OPG in the subchondral bone of OA rabbits in comparison
and F). Next we analysed the expression of MMP-13 in the same to control animals, RANKL was induced in this tissue (2.6 ± 0.4 for OA

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J.A. Roman-Blas et al. European Journal of Pharmacology 794 (2017) 8–14

Fig. 3. COX-2, IL-1β, MMP-1, MMP-3 and MMP-13 presence in the synovial membrane. A-E: Densitometric analysis of protein presence in the synovial membrane, assessed by
western-blot. F, representative western-blot images for protein detection in the synovial membrane. EZ Blue stained gel used as protein loading control is also shown. The bars show the
mean ± S.E.M. *P < 0.05 vs. control. N=9–10 samples per group. Control (CTR), osteoarthritic (OA), osteoarthritic treated with combined therapy 1 (OA+CT1) and osteoarthritic treated
with combined therapy 2 (OA+CT2) rabbits.

vs. 1.03 ± 0.41.0 A.U. for control, P < 0.05). None of the combined for osteoarthritis is controversial. Preclinical and clinical studies
therapies were able to significantly modify RANKL presence (2.0 ± suggest that chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine sulfate and combinations
0.3 AU for OA+CT1 and 2.0 ± 0.5 AU for OA+CT2; P > 0.05 vs OA), nor could modify the disease progression but, at the same time, discre-
the ratio OPG/RANKL in the subchondral bone. pancies on the efficacy in modifying the course of the disease have been
also observed (Henrotin et al., 2014). In contrast to the negative results
found in the present study, in vitro research has demonstrated that
4. Discussion
pretreatment with GH reduces glycosaminoglycan release, production
of pathological interglobular domain aggrecan catabolites, mRNA
In this work, we have studied the effect of chondroitin sulfate plus
levels of ADAMTS-4 and -5 and ADAMTS-4 activity in bovine cartilage
glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine hydro-
explants treated with IL-1α (Bascoul-Colombo et al., 2016).
chloride in combined therapy at structural level, as well as on the
Glucosamine hydrochloride also reduced the release of inflammatory
inflammatory and matrix degradative mediators in our destabilization
markers, prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide induced by IL-1α.
model of osteoarthritis. High doses of chondroitin sulfate plus gluco-
Meanwhile, chondroitin sulfate alone did not have a significant effect
samine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine hydrochloride
on IL-1α-induced cartilage degradation and inflammation.
did not prevent the histopathological changes observed in the non-
Furthermore, the combination of both compounds did not further
treated osteoarthritis group. Furthermore, no effects were observed in
inhibit IL-1α-induced activity (Bascoul-Colombo et al., 2016). Previous
the dysregulation of different osteoarthritis mediators at the articular
work carried out by our group also described positive effects for
cartilage and at the synovial membrane. Interestingly, the chondroitin
chondroitin sulfate in different experimental models of chronic arthri-
sulfate plus glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate plus glucosa-
tis. In this regard, we observed that intraperitoneal injection of
mine hydrochloride combinations were administered previously to
chondroitin sulfate was able to reduce the inflammatory response of
osteoarthritis induction, thus throwing into question the effect of
the synovial membrane, as well as to decrease the synovial histopatho-
SYSADOAS when used preventively at early stages of the disease.
logical lesions in chronic antigen-induced arthritis (Largo et al., 2010).
The use of chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine sulfate and
Clinical data also reflect the controversy on chondroitin sulfate plus
chondroitin sulfate plus glucosamine hydrochloride in combination

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J.A. Roman-Blas et al. European Journal of Pharmacology 794 (2017) 8–14

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treatments for knee osteoarthritis. chronic synovitis–a histopathological grading system for molecular and diagnostic
pathology. Pathol. Res. Pract. 198, 317–325.
Largo, R., Martínez-Calatrava, M.J., Sánchez-Pernaute, O., Marcos, M.E., Moreno-Rubio,
Funding J., Aparicio, C., Egido, J., Herrero-Beaumont, G., 2009. Effect of a high dose of
glucosamine on systemic and tissue inflammation in an experimental model of
This work was partially supported by research grants from the atherosclerosis aggravated by chronic arthritis. Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol.
297, H268–H276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00142.2009.
Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI12/00144; PI13/00570; PI15/00340 Largo, R., Roman-Blas, J., Moreno-Rubio, J., Sánchez-Pernaute, O., Martínez-Calatrava,
and RETICEF RD12/0043/0008), co-funded by Fondo Europeo de M.J., Castañeda, S., Herrero-Beaumont, G., 2010. Chondroitin sulfate improves
Desarrollo Regional (FEDER). synovitis in rabbits with chronic antigen-induced arthritis. Osteoarthr. Cartil. 18
(Suppl 1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2010.01.017.
Lv, Y., Xia, J., Chen, J., Zhao, H., Yan, H., Yang, H., Li, Q., Fan, Y., Guo, K., Chen, X.,
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