The herbal remedy Zingiber officinale (ginger root) has been used for perhaps thousands of years in the Far East to treat inflammatory diseases, including osteoarthritis. However, the anti-arthritic effect of ginger root has never been evaluated on osteoarthrotic cartilage of sow. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of ginger root extract (GRE) on the viability and the production of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) by sow osteoarthrotic cartilage explants. The cartilage explants (~20 mg/96-well plate) were grown in Ham's F-12/Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and antibiotics for 72 hours and depleted for 24 hours. GRE was then added at different concentrations (0-2,000 microg/mL), and the explants were allowed to grow for 24 hours. The cell viability was reduced (P<.05) with GRE >/=500 microg/mL, whereas it was not affected with GRE <100 microg/mL. In a follow-up experiment, the supernatants of cartilage explants with GRE (0-500 microg/mL) in the presence of interleukin-1beta (2 ng/mL), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (1 ng/mL), and lipopolysaccharides (10 microg/mL) were used to measure NO and PGE production. Increasing GRE concentration (1-100 microg/mL) reduced (P <.05) NO production by cartilage tissue explants, and a similar pattern was observed in the production of PGE(2). The inhibitory effects of GRE on NO and PGE(2) production by sow osteoarthrotic cartilage explants observed in this study suggest an important role for GRE as an anti-arthritic agent in osteoarthrosis in the sow.