Objective: Non-enzymatic glycation in vivocontributes to formation of advanced glycation end products which cause undesirable irreversible connective tissue changes as a result of cross-linkage. Determination of pentosidine, representative of such compounds, enable quantitative monitoring of degradation changes in osteoarthritic joints associated with inflammation and increased glycoxidation loading of the organism. Patients and methods: Urinary pentosidine in patients with advanced osteoarthritis was measured before and 6 months after total replacement of affected joint. The analyzed samples of cartilage, synovial membrane and affected subchondral bone were taken during installation of total hip or knee endoprosthesis. For pentosidine determination in hydrolysates of body fluids and tissue extracts we elaborated sensitive method based on gradient reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescent detection. Results: Before the surgery pentosidine in urine of osteoarthritic patients was significantly higher in comparison with levels after the surgery and from the healthy control group. We found positive correlation of pentosidine in urine before and after the surgery and strong correlation of the pentosidine levels in extracts from synovium and affected subchondral bone. In case of urine and cartilage pentosidine significantly increased with age. In joint tissues the highest levels (adjusted to weight of dry mass) were found in synovial membrane extracts (45.00 nmol/g), in cartilage we found 36.28 nmol/g and much lower concentration was in subchondral bone changed by the arthritic process (2.98 nmol/g). Conclusion: Significant decrease of pentosidine in urine of patients with advanced osteoarthritis shown repair of the pathological state after total replacement of affected joint. We observed also significant contribution of age to pentosidine accumulation in urine and cartilage. Our results support the hypothesis that pentosidine can play the role of potential biomarker of degradation cartilage breakdown and inflammation in osteoarthritis. Determination of pentosidine could thus contribute to understanding of pathological processes occuring in arthritic joint associated with the presence of local inflammation, excessive glycoxidation loading and ageing of the organism.

        Key words: pentosidine, advanced osteoarthritis, biomarker, connective tissue, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)