R Mark Wellard1, Alf Pawlik, Sabrina Barheine, Konstantin I. Momot2
1QUT, Brisbane, Qld, Australia; 2QUT, Australia
The early changes associated with osteoarthritis of articular cartilage are not well understood. Our objective was to better understand the metabolite distribution in cartilage. We studied the changes in intact bovine patellar cartilage using solid-state 1H and 13C MAS NMR following incubation of the cartilage in D2O to remove free water. The influence of freezing and thawing on the eluted metabolites was determined using 13C NMR. Examination of the 1H MAS NMR spinning side-bands suggests the presence of multiple bound states of water. Metabolite elution following frozen storage of cartilage shows an increased loss of proteoglycans, relative to fresh tissue.