Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 12 pp 12285—12304

Figure 2. Effects of circulatory factors on aggrecanolysis in IVDs from mouse heterochronic parabionts. (A) A schematic of the mouse aggrecan core protein showing the three globular domains, G1, G2, G3, and sulfate-rich GAG region between G2 and G3. Anti-G1 was used to detect aggrecan and its fragments. The cleavage sites between G1 and G2 interglobular domains by ADAMTS (G1-NVTEGE392) and MMP (G1-VDIPEN360) proteases are indicated by the letter A and M, respectively. (B) Immunoblot of MMP- and ADAMTS-mediated cleavage of disc aggrecan of mice from the four groups. Graphs on right are quantification of aggrecan fragments shown in panel on left. Data shown are mean ± SD of 4 independent experiments, *p < 0.05.