Recent advances in understanding the role of immune related factors in osteoarthritis / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Osteoarthritis (OA), a chronic joint degenerative disease, is the significant cause of the loss of joint function in middle-aged and older people. Bone destruction, synovial hyperplasia, osteophyte formation, and subchondral bone sclerosis are the main features of osteoarthritis, and the typical symptom is severe joint pain. Consequent to unprecedented global population aging, osteoarthritis remains a leading cause of disability, and the treatment often comes at a high cost. With an in-depth understanding of related research, osteoarthritis is proven to be a multifactorial disease whose onset is not simply a cartilage lesion, and the immune plays an essential role in the development of the disease. Some studies proposed that chondrocytes are capable of altering gene expression and mediating osteoarthritis progression by regulating immune responses. Previous studies showed that the extent of immune dysregulation significantly correlates with the severity of osteoarthritis, revealing an association between immunity response and clinical manifestations. The study of immune infiltration, genetic alterations, and pathogenesis of osteoarthritis may provide new perspectives and methods for the treatment of osteoarthritis in the future. Therefore, this review, combined with the recent decade of literature, provides an overview of the research progress of the main immune cells and related cytokines in OA, which may provide a new direction of thinking for diagnosing and preventing this disease.