Open AccessA Comparison of the Histochemical and Image-Derived Proteoglycan Content of Articular Cartilage
Author(s) -
Afara I Singh S
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
anatomy and physiology :
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2161-0940
DOI - 10.4172/2161-0940.1000120
Subject(s) - proteoglycan , articular cartilage , cartilage , content (measure theory) , chemistry , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology , pathology , biology , osteoarthritis , medicine , mathematics , mathematical analysis , alternative medicine
There are several methods for determining the proteoglycan content of cartilage in biomechanics experiments.\udMany of these include assay-based methods and the histochemistry or spectrophotometry protocol where\udquantification is biochemically determined. More recently a method based on extracting data to quantify proteoglycan\udcontent has emerged using the image processing algorithms, e.g., in ImageJ, to process histological micrographs,\udwith advantages including time saving and low cost. However, it is unknown whether or not this image analysis\udmethod produces results that are comparable to those obtained from the biochemical methodology. This paper\udcompares the results of a well-established chemical method to those obtained using image analysis to determine\udthe proteoglycan content of visually normal (n=33) and their progressively degraded counterparts with the protocols. The results reveal a strong linear relationship with a regression coefficient (R2) = 0.9928, leading to the conclusion that the image analysis methodology is a viable alternative to the spectrophotometry