Brophy Robert H, Sandell Linda J, Cheverud James M, Rai Muhammad Farooq
a Department of Orthopaedic Surgery , Washington University School of Medicine , St. Louis , MO , USA.
b Department of Cell Biology and Physiology , Washington University School of Medicine , St. Louis , MO , USA.
Connect Tissue Res. 2017 May-Jul;58(3-4):295-304. doi: 10.1080/03008207.2016.1211114. Epub 2016 Jul 19.
Purpose/Aim: Meniscus tears are a common injury to the knee associated with the development of osteoarthritis. Gene expression in the injured meniscus may be associated with early degeneration in the articular cartilage. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that gene expression in meniscus tears is associated with early degenerative changes in the articular cartilage at the time of partial meniscectomy.
Torn meniscus was removed at the time of partial meniscectomy in 68 patients without radiographic osteoarthritis. Meniscal mRNA expression was measured by quantitative PCR for multiple molecular markers of osteoarthritis and cartilage homeostasis. The presence of early degenerative changes in the knee was recorded by X-ray (N = 63), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, N = 48), and arthroscopy (N = 63). Gene expression was tested for correlation with the presence/absence of degenerative changes after adjusting for age, sex, and body mass index.
Overall gene expression varied significantly with degenerative changes based on X-ray (P = 0.047) and MRI (P = 0.018). The linear combination of gene variation was also significant. However, only adiponectin (ADIPOQ) (P = 0.015) was expressed at a significantly lower level in patients with chondrosis on MRI, while the expression of ADIPOQ (P = 0.035) and resistin (RETN) (P = 0.017) was higher in patients with early degenerative changes on X-ray. None of the genes varied significantly with presence/absence of chondrosis as measured by arthroscopy.
There is an overall association of gene expression in meniscal tears to early degenerative changes in the knee, but only a limited number of specific genes demonstrate this relationship. The roles of adiponectin and resistin in knee injury and osteoarthritis deserve further study.
目的/目标：半月板撕裂是膝关节常见损伤，与骨关节炎的发展相关。损伤半月板中的基因表达可能与关节软骨的早期退变有关。本研究的目的是检验半月板撕裂时的基因表达与部分半月板切除术时关节软骨早期退变改变相关这一假设。
在68例无影像学骨关节炎的患者行部分半月板切除术时切除撕裂的半月板。通过定量PCR测量半月板mRNA表达，检测多种骨关节炎和软骨稳态的分子标志物。通过X线（n = 63）、磁共振成像（MRI，n = 48）和关节镜检查（n = 63）记录膝关节早期退变改变的存在情况。在调整年龄、性别和体重指数后，检测基因表达与退变改变存在与否的相关性。
基于X线（P = 0.047）和MRI（P = 0.018），总体基因表达随退变改变有显著差异。基因变异的线性组合也具有显著性。然而，只有脂联素（ADIPOQ）（P = 0.015）在MRI显示软骨软化的患者中表达显著较低，而在X线显示早期退变改变的患者中，ADIPOQ（P = 0.035）和抵抗素（RETN）（P = 0.017）的表达较高。通过关节镜检查测量，没有基因随软骨软化的存在与否有显著差异。
半月板撕裂中的基因表达与膝关节早期退变改变总体相关，但只有少数特定基因显示出这种关系。脂联素和抵抗素在膝关节损伤和骨关节炎中的作用值得进一步研究。
