Osteoarthritis: Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Pathological Mechanism

Overview

Journal Bone Res

Specialties Endocrinology
Orthopedics

Date 2017 Feb 3

PMID 28149655

Citations 492

Authors

Di Chen

Jie Shen

Weiwei Zhao

Tingyu Wang

Lin Han

John L Hamilton

Hee-Jeong Im

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative joint disease and a major cause of pain and disability in adult individuals. The etiology of OA includes joint injury, obesity, aging, and heredity. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms of OA initiation and progression remain poorly understood and, currently, there are no interventions available to restore degraded cartilage or decelerate disease progression. The diathrodial joint is a complicated organ and its function is to bear weight, perform physical activity and exhibit a joint-specific range of motion during movement. During OA development, the entire joint organ is affected, including articular cartilage, subchondral bone, synovial tissue and meniscus. A full understanding of the pathological mechanism of OA development relies on the discovery of the interplaying mechanisms among different OA symptoms, including articular cartilage degradation, osteophyte formation, subchondral sclerosis and synovial hyperplasia, and the signaling pathway(s) controlling these pathological processes.

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