Pyrophosphate release by osteoarthritis cartilage incubates.

Incubates of articular cartilage from young but not mature rabbits, as well as growth plate cartilage, elaborated PPi into basel Eagle's medium during a 4-hour period. Control rabbit synovial membrane and ear cartilage elaborated negligible amounts of PPi. The PPi was shown to be nondialyzable but could be dissociated from the alkaline phosphatase by ultracentrifugation. In 16 patients with osteoarthritis a substantial output of PPi by samples of articular cartilage from the knee was demonstrated. The present authors believe that either rapid cell division and matrix synthesis found in the base of ulcerating osteoarthritic cartilage or remodeling calcified sites comprise the origin of the PPi in such osteoarthritic cartilage. They further theorize that this PPi output accounts for a considerable fraction, if not all, of the elevated PPi levels found in synovial fluid of patients with osteoarthritis.