Expression in equine cartilage stimulated with IL-1β in vitro. Equus caballus

The objective was to study the time-course effects of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) on equine articular cartilage, with the aim to identify genes of relevance for cartilage pathology in osteoarthritis. Changes in gene expression related to inflammation, extracellular matrix, and phenotypic alterations was studied. Overall design: Articular cartilage explants from the distal third metacarpal bone were collected postmortem from 3 horses without evidence of joint disease. The explants were stimulated with IL-1β for 27 days and global gene expression was measured using Affymetrix microarray. Gene expression in IL-1β stimulated explants was compared to expression in unstimulated explants at days 3, 9, 15, 21 and 27.