Kraus Virginia Byers
Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2005 Sep;17(5):641-6. doi: 10.1097/01.bor.0000174195.15421.17.
Biomarker discovery and validation for osteoarthritis have accelerated over the past several years, coincident with an evolving understanding of joint tissue molecules and their complex interactions, and the compelling need for improved osteoarthritis outcome measures in clinical trials. This review highlights advances in osteoarthritis-related biomarker research within the past year.
The studies in the past year involving biochemical markers in humans can be assigned to one of four categories: new approaches and new biomarkers, exploratory studies in specialized disease subsets, large cross-sectional validation studies, and longitudinal studies, with and without an intervention.
Most these studies have examined the association of a biomarker with some aspect of the natural history of osteoarthritis. As illustrated by the six studies reviewed here that included therapeutic interventions, however, several biomarkers are emerging that display credible association with disease modification. The expanding pool of informative osteoarthritis-related biomarkers is expected to positively impact the development of therapeutics for this disease and, it is hoped, ultimately clinical care.
在过去几年中，骨关节炎生物标志物的发现和验证工作加速推进，这与对关节组织分子及其复杂相互作用的认识不断发展，以及临床试验中对改进骨关节炎疗效评估指标的迫切需求相契合。本综述重点介绍过去一年骨关节炎相关生物标志物研究的进展。
过去一年涉及人类生化标志物的研究可分为四类：新方法和新生物标志物、针对特定疾病亚组的探索性研究、大型横断面验证研究以及有或无干预的纵向研究。
这些研究大多考察了生物标志物与骨关节炎自然病程某些方面的关联。然而，正如这里综述的六项包含治疗干预的研究所表明的，一些生物标志物正在显现出与疾病改善有可靠关联。预计不断增加的信息丰富的骨关节炎相关生物标志物将对该疾病治疗方法的开发产生积极影响，并有望最终惠及临床医疗。
