Hyaluronan Turnover in the Synovial Fluid in Metacarpophalangeal–and Middle Carpal Joints in Standardbred Horses

Abstract

Lindholm, A., B. Ronéus, G. Lindblad and B. Jones: Hyaluronan turnover in the synovial fluid in metacarpophalangeal–and middle carpal joints in Standardbred horses. Acta vet. scand. 1996, 37,147-151.– The biological turnover of hyaluronan (sodium hyaluronate) of different molecular weights (0.6×106 and 2.5×106 Daltons) was studied in the synovial fluid of the middle carpal and metacarpophalangeal joints of 6 clinically healthy Standardbred horses. The hyaluronan was radioactively labelled with 14C. The biological half-life (t1/2) was calculated from repeated synovial samples after injection of the labelled hyaluronan. The mean t1/2 in the metacarpophalangeal joints was 9.7 h for low molecular weight hyaluronan and 8.9 h for high molecular weight hya-luronan and in the middle carpal joints 16.0 h and 12.5 h respectively. There was no sig-nificant difference in turnover of the different molecular weights of hyaluronan.