Osteoarthritis-related changes in gene expression in knee articular chondrocytes in a rat model of osteoarthritis.

Cartilage destruction in osteoarthritis (OA) results from disturbed chondrocyte metabolism. Here, we used microarrays to show that TGF alpha and CCL2 are simultaneously upregulated in a rat model of OA and cooperate to drive cartilage degradation. The goals of the experiments included here were to a) characterize gene expression in knee joint articular chondrocytes at various stages of development of OA (2 and 8 weeks after surgical induction of OA), and b) to establish trends in gene expression among groups of genes related to the TGF alpha-EGFR axis, over time, in OA. The model chosen to study these results has been previously validated (Appleton, CT et al, 2007, Arthritis Rheum) and used to describe similar gene expression results at a different time point (4 weeks) after induction of OA. The rat model of OA involves surgical destabilization of the knee joint, followed by forced low-intensity mobilization over several weeks; a sham surgery is used as the control (representing a healthy non-OA knee joint) wherein a surgical incision is made but not structural (i.e. ligamentous) modification is made to the joint. Altogether, our data indicate that TGF and CCL2 cooperate to drive cartilage degradation in osteoarthritis.

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