Glycosaminoglycans are natural components of healthy joint cartilage and they also appear in healthy synovial fluid. An increased amount of glycosaminoglycans in synovial fluid is believed to be a marker of secondary osteoarthritis, regardless of its primary cause. The aim of our study was to define the relationship between glycosaminoglycans in the synovial fluid and joint disorders, age, and body weight. The samples of synovial fluid were obtained from dogs suffering from secondary secondary osteoarthritis (n = 35) and from control dogs (n = 18); control dogs had normal body weight. The results were compared among joints of dogs with secondary osteoarthritis divided into groups according to the criteria mentioned above and control dogs. Glycosaminoglycan concentrations in synovial fluid were measured using dimethylmethylene blue assay. The lowest mean value of glycosaminoglycans in synovial fluid was measured in the control group. Significantly higher glycosaminoglycan content (P < 0.05) was found in synovial fluid isolated from obese dogs compared to control dogs. Furthermore, we observed an agerelated trend, in which the highest mean values were reached either in old dogs or pups. Despite the absence of significant differences in glycosaminoglycan values among dogs suffering from various types of secondary secondary osteoarthritis, the highest mean values were measured in fragmented coronoid processus group. Our data suggest that abnormally increased body weight has an impact on glycosaminoglycan concentration in synovial fluid which may imply faster degradation and turnover of joint cartilage. Such observation has not yet been published in veterinary medicine.
Rheumatoid factor (RF) is an important marker of many autoimmune diseases. Presence of RF is characteristic for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases of various underlying aetiologies.The aim of our study was to introduce and standardise a convenient assay for RF-IgM detection in canine serum and to test it on a group of selected dogs. ELISA was chosen as a method of analysis due to its high specificity, selectivity and optimal quality in clinical use.For standardised method evaluation we examined serum samples from 80 dogs classified into 4 groups as follows: I -dogs positive in the ANA test (ANA+) suffering from orthopaedic or complex diseases; II -dogs negative in the ANA test (ANA-) suffering from orthopaedic or complex diseases; III -dogs negative in the ANA test (ANA-) suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases; IV -control healthy dogs. Significant difference between mean values of RF-IgM in respective groups was detected. Dogs from groups I and II showed the highest mean values. These were significantly higher than the values in dogs from groups III and IV and the differences between the last mentioned two groups were also significant.Our data suggest that the introduced method is suitable for use in the veterinary laboratory practice.
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