Metabolism of Cartilage Proteoglycans in Health and Disease

Figure 2

A simplified scheme for aggrecan degradation. Aggrecan is initially degraded by extracellular proteases, mainly ADAMTS and MMPs; the various fragments are endocytosed and the CS-containing peptides are further processed by specific glycosidases and sulfatases. Only the initial endolysosomal degradation steps are shown.