ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess the activity of cathepsin D (CAT-D) and alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) in blood in patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis, and to explore whether these two enzymes could be served as serum biomarkers for cartilage degeneration. Methods: hTe activity of CAT-D and AAT in blood serum of 44 women and 26 men with hip or knee osteoarthritis was determined by the method of ELISA before total joint replacement and on the 10th day atfer the surgery. One hundred healthy volunteers were chosen as the control. All datawere analyzed by using SPSS19.0 sotfware. Results: Compared with the controls, the activity of CAT-D in patients with osteoarthritis was decreased by 25% (P0.05), but it was increased by 80% after the surgery than that in the control group (P0.05). hTe gender, hypertension, diabetes and age did not affect the activities of the 2 enzymes (P>0.05). Conclusion: AAT might be a possible inflammatory indicator in the osteoarthritis. CAT-D and AAT enzymes are not affected by gender, age, hypertension and diabetes, etc, and they might be served as potential biomarkers for cartilage degradation.