Abstract
Objective: To explore the effect of.-glutamyl carboxylase (GGCX) in the pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis. Methods: 40 cases of patients with knee osteoarthritis treated in our hospital from January 2014 to January 2015 were selected as the observation group, and another 40 cases of patients with normal knee during the same period were selected as the control group. The joint cartilage and synovial fluid were collected for further study. The expression of GGCX in the cartilage tissues of both groups was determined using immunohistochemical assay, the expressions of GGCX protein and mRNA in both groups were evaluated by Western blot and Real-time PCR, respectively; And the expression level of GGCX in synovial fluid was measured by using Magnetic chemiluminescence immunoassay. SPSS 21.0 software was used for the statistical analysis. Results: Immunohistochemical assay showed that the integrated optical density (IOD) in observation group was (0.578 +/- 0.221), which was significantly lower than that of the control group (1.339 +/- 0.118), the difference was statistically significant (t = 17.14, P = 0.00); Western blot showed the relative gray value of GGCX in observation group was (0.296 +/- 0.194), which was significantly lower than that of the control group (0.898 +/- 0.049), the difference was statistically significant (t = 19.34, P = 0.00); Real-time PCR results showed that the mRNA expression of GGCX in observation group was (2.992 +/- 1.316), which was significantly lower than that of the control group (10.978 +/- 2.112), the difference was statistically significant (t = 18.01, P = 0.00). Chemiluminescence immunoassay showed that the content of GGCX in synovial fluid of observation group was (111.215 +/- 25.106 nmol/L), which was significantly lower than that of the control group (578.546 +/- 121.622 nmoL/L), indicating a statistically significant difference (t = 23.01, P = 0.00). The correlation analysis showed that the expression of GGCX decreased with the degeneration of joint cartilage. Conclusion: The expression of GGCX significantly reduced in the cartilage and the synovial fluid in patients with knee osteoarthritis; and with the worsening of cartilage degeneration, expression of GGCX decreased too.