Abstract

The CS employed in scientific studies is generally derived from animal sources by extraction and purification processes and is mainly obtained from bovine, porcine, chicken, or marine cartilage. From these, bovine CS is the most often used in vitro and in clinical trials Although beneficial effects of orally administrated CS in OA patients have been reported caution should be exercised in the study or use of different CS formulations, because the species or tissue of origin could result in great differences in CS structural organization or disaccharide composition. Probably for this reason, recent meta-analysis and large scale clinical trials have demonstrated variable effects on OA symptoms, yielding conflicting result. The differentially labeled co-resolved proteins within each gel were imaged at 100 dots/inch resolution using a DIGE Imager scanner (GE Healthcare). Cy2-, Cy3-, and Cy5-labeled images of each gel were acquired at excitation/ emission values of 488/520, 523/580, and 633/670 nm, respectively [1-15].The gels were scanned directly between the glass plates, and the 16-bit image file format images were exported for data analysis. After imaging for CyDyes, the gels were removed from the plates and stained with colloidal Coomassie following standard procedures.