OBJECTIVETo study the influence of metabolism of articular cartilage in ovariectomized rats in the intervention of different drugs.

METHODSSixty-six virgin female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly stratified into six groups: sham operation (SHAM) group,ovariectomized (OVX) group, estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) group, estrogen receptor modulator (ERM) group, Xianling Gubao([Chinese characters: see text], XLGB) group,and glucosamine sulfate (GS) group. One group subjected to standard sham operation and the remaining five groups were ovariectomized. The five ovariectomized groups received treatment either with the vehicle or different drugs given as an oral suspension in the vehicle. Urine samples were obtained at initial time and weeks 3, 5 and 7 after ovariectomy. ELISA method was used to measure the concentration of collagen II degradation products (CTX-II) in the urine. At study termination,histological analysis of the knee joint was used to assess the pathological changes of the articular cartilage.

RESULTSCompared with the baseline, the concentration of CTX-II at weeks 3 and 5 after ovariectomy were obviously different (P < 0.05). Compared with the OVX group, concentration of CTX-II in the ERT group and ERM group were significant different (P < 0.01). XLGB group also was obviously different with the OVX group at the two points (P < 0.05). And interestingly in the histological examination in the OVX group was different with all the other groups.

CONCLUSIONThe study indicates that estrogen deficiency accelerates destructive turnover of the collagen II in articular cartilage. The ERT, ERM, XLGB can relieve the effect. And all the drugs can delay the cartilage degradation caused by that effect.