Effects of free and bound insulin‐like growth factors on proteoglycan metabolism in articular cartilage explants

This article describes the effects of bound forms of insulin‐like growth factors (IGFs) on proteoglycan metabolism by bovine articular cartilage in explant culture. When these growth factors were added to articular cartilage explants complexed with their native serum binding proteins (BPs), both IGF‐I‐BP complex and IGF‐II‐BP complex stimulated proteoglycan synthesis to different degrees over a 3‐day period. When added to the medium of cultures of articular cartilage over 5 days, IGF‐II‐BP complex induced high rates of synthesis and low rates of catabolism of proteoglycans, giving rise to tissue levels of proteoglycan similar to those observed in fresh tissue. When articular cartilage was maintained in culture with the same concentration of IGF‐I‐BP complex, tissue levels of proteoglycans fell over the culture period because of lower rates of proteoglycan synthesis. Analysis of the proteoglycans synthesized by articular cartilage in the presence of free or bound IGF‐I or IGF‐II showed that these growth factors stimulated the rate of synthesis of the large proteoglycan species present in cartilage but did not affect the synthesis of the small proteoglycans.