Glucosamine

Glucosamine is a natural amino monosaccharide and a constituent of the glycosaminoglycans in cartilage (Derfoul 2007). It comes in several forms, and the studies here used different ones at different doses.

• In human cartilage cells and stem cells grown as pellets, glucosamine at 100 micromolar raised type II collagen and aggrecan genes and inhibited MMP13. Doses of 10 to 20 millimolar worked against it (Derfoul 2007).
• In human hip cartilage cells, 2 mM N-acetyl glucosamine cut cytokine-driven IL-1 beta fourfold but didn't change MMP13 (Imagawa 2011).
• In cartilage cells from patients' knees, glucosamine sulphate raised aggrecan and lowered MMP-3 by 18 to 65%. Cells from 40% of the patients didn't respond (Dodge 2003).

None of these studies measured MMP13 in people taking glucosamine.

Sources

1. Derfoul A, Miyoshi AD, Freeman DE et al. Glucosamine promotes chondrogenic phenotype in both chondrocytes and mesenchymal stem cells and inhibits MMP-13 expression and matrix degradation. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2007.
   PMID 17337215DOI 10.1016/j.joca.2007.01.014Our summary
2. Imagawa K, de Andrés MC, Hashimoto K et al. The epigenetic effect of glucosamine and a nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) inhibitor on primary human chondrocytes--implications for osteoarthritis. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2011.
   PMID 21219853DOI 10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.01.007
3. Dodge GR, Jimenez SA. Glucosamine sulfate modulates the levels of aggrecan and matrix metalloproteinase-3 synthesized by cultured human osteoarthritis articular chondrocytes. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2003.
   PMID 12801482DOI 10.1016/s1063-4584(03)00052-9Our summary

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