Acute Synovitis after Trauma Precedes and is Associated with Osteoarthritis Onset and Progression.

International Journal of Biological Sciences
Lifan LiaoDi Chen

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a whole-joint disease characterized by cartilage destruction, subchondral bone sclerosis, osteophyte formation, and synovitis. However, it remains unclear which part of the joint undergoes initial pathological changes that drives OA onset and progression. In the present study, we investigated the longitudinal alterations of the entire knee joint using a surgically-induced OA mouse model. Histology analysis showed that synovitis occurred as early as 1 week after destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM), which preceded the events of cartilage degradation, subchondral sclerosis and osteophyte formation. Importantly, key pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα, and Ccl2, major matrix degrading enzymes including Adamts4, Mmp3 and Mmp13, as well as nerve growth factor (NGF), all increased significantly in both synovium and articular cartilage. It is notable that the inductions of these factors in synovium are far more extensive than those in articular cartilage. Results from behavioral tests demonstrated that sensitization of knee joint pain developed after 8 weeks, later than histological and molecular changes. In addition, the nanoindentation modulus of the medial tibiae decreased 4 weeks aft...Continue Reading

Methods Mentioned

BETA
PCR

Software Mentioned

Photobeam

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