Human synovial fluid

SF was acquired during autopsy from the knees of 15 post-mortem human donors without any reported history of arthritic disease [(14 males, 1 female, median age 24.0 (21.0–29.0) years, median BMI 24.8 (20.8–25.0)], as already described [19, 23]. The 15 donors were examined at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Justus Liebig University Giessen. The Ethical Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine (Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany) approved the present study. The Ethical Review Committee (protocol #62/06) waived the need for consent to be obtained from relatives of deceased donors, since a judicial order to perform autopsy existed and any additional emotional draining of the relatives was to be avoided.