Modulation of Cartilage Hypertrophy by BMP-7 and Peptide

Example 6

4 mm2 cartilage explants were taken from non-lesion areas of OA patient's knee articular cartilage (n=5) and randomly assigned to different experimental treatment conditions (4 explants per treatment group). After a 24 h equilibration period the explants were treated with BMP-7 (1 nM) or the 12-mer peptide according to SEQ ID NO: 16 (10 nM) for 24 h. Hypertrophic gene expression was determined via qRT-PCR and normalized for 28S rRNA levels. After treatment with BMP-7 or the 12 mer we observed a downregulation of pro-hypertrophic genes, such as Col10a1 (FIG. 10A) and MMP13 (FIG. 10B). These results are in line with the effects described above and show the BMP-7 mimicking bioactivity of the peptides according to the invention.