ACAN and arthritic joint disease: Gupta et al. (26) and Bhujade et al. (16) also demonstrated that CQE inhibited the degradation of collagen and proteoglycans, while Panthong et al. (18) emphasized CQE’s ability to protect cartilage by preserving collagen type II and aggrecan levels across various arthritis models, reinforcing the protective effects observed in our study.