Osteoarthritis is a heterogeneous disease of joints that affects mainly older population. Definitive cure of osteoarthritis is still undiscovered. This study was designed to evaluate and compare the chondroprotective effects of hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone in murine model of osteoarthritis. Methods: This Laboratory based experimental study was carried out in Pharmacology Department, Army Medical College Rawalpindi, from April-June 2019. Osteoarthritis was induced by medial menisectomy and anterior cruciate ligament resectioning of knee joints of twenty-four rats which were then divided into three groups with eight rats in each. Group I, II and III were named control, hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone groups respectively, which were given intra-articular injections of these drugs once weekly for four consecutive weeks and then gait pattern was scored. Animals were sacrificed thereafter and samples were collected for histopathological analysis. Results: Comparison of gait score of control, hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone groups exhibited a p value of <0.01 while intergroup comparison between group I and II, group I and III and group II and III depicted p value of <0.001, 0.016 and 0.003 respectively. Likewise, collective histopathological analysis of the three groups showed p value of <0.01 while intergroup comparison of group I and II, group I and III and group II and III showed p value of <0.001 for all. Conclusion: Comparison of control group with treatment groups proved chondroprotective effects of hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone. Additionally, hyaluronic acid proved to provide better chondroprotection as compared to triamcinolone.
Aim: In this study, the authors aimed to determine the serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin-1 (ang-1) and angiopoietin-2 (ang-2) factors as indicators of placental angiogenesis and vasculogenesis in abortion cases. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 40 women who were pregnant for 7-20 weeks and diagnosed with an incipient abortion and 40 pregnant healthy women with similar ages, gestational weeks, and body mass index (BMI) values. Serum VEGF, ang-1, and ang-2 levels were measured with ELISA methods. Results: The authors found that the serum VEGF levels were higher and ang-1 levels were significantly lower in pregnant women whose pregnancies failed with abortion, compared to control group. There was no significant difference in terms of ang-2 levels between groups. Conclusion: A strong relationship was found between VEGF and ang-1 early pregnancy loss, and significant changes of these factors may also be associated with the physiopathology of abortion incipience. Evaluating these factors may be benefical for prediction and designing of treatment modalities on spontaneous abortion.
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