Background: We aimed to study the effects of intra-articular injection of jellyfish mucin (qniumucin) on articular cartilage degeneration in a model of osteoarthritis (OA) created in rabbit knees by resection of the anterior cruciate ligament. Qniumucin was extracted from Aurelia aurita (moon jellyfish) and Stomolophus nomurai (Nomura's jellyfish) and purified by ion exchange chromatography. The OA model used 36 knees in 18 Japanese white rabbits. Purified qniumucin extracts from S. nomurai or A. aurita were used at 1 mg/ml. Rabbits were divided into four groups: a control (C) group injected with saline; a hyaluronic acid (HA)-only group (H group); two qniumucin-only groups (M groups); and two qniumucin + HA groups (MH groups). One milligram of each solution was injected intra-articularly once a week for 5 consecutive weeks, starting from 4 weeks after surgery. Ten weeks after surgery, the articular cartilage was evaluated macroscopically and histologically.
Results: In the C and M groups, macroscopic cartilage defects extended to the subchondral bone medially and laterally. When the H and both MH groups were compared, only minor cartilage degeneration was observed in groups treated with qniumucin in contrast to the group without qniumucin. Histologically, densely safranin-O-stained cartilage layers were observed in the H and two MH groups, but cartilage was strongly maintained in both MH groups.
Conclusion: At the concentrations of qniumucin used in this study, injection together with HA inhibited articular cartilage degeneration in this model of OA.