First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, No. 16, Airport Road, Baiyun District, Guangzhou City, 510405, China.
Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen, China.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2022 May 10;23(1):434. doi: 10.1186/s12891-022-05399-2.
Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is closely related to the pathogenesis Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). β-catenin, as a major component of Wnt signaling pathway, plays a vital role in the proliferation of osteoblasts. But the effect of altering β-catenin level on the early diagnosis and staging of ONFH has not been studied. Our purpose is to investigate the role of β-catenin level in the progress of ONFH.
One hundred and one patients with three stages of ONFH and fifty healthy controls were recruited between May 2016 and November 2016. We divided the patients into 32 cases of stage II, 41 cases of stage III and 28 cases of stage IV according to the Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) classification. We evaluated the clinical bone histomorphology, expression position and level of β-catenin as well as the plasma β-catenin level. We investigated the level of β-catenin from the serum and tissue samples using ELISA and Western Blot assay. We also evaluated the expression of β-catenin in bone tissue by immunohistochemistry. Data were analyzed by independent t-test and ANOVA.
We found that the mean (± SD) serum level of β-catenin was 66.99 ± 3.032 ng/ml in the ONFH patients, which was higher than 20.14 ± 1.715 ng/ml observed in the control group (P < 0.001). Moreover, the β-catenin levels were 49.30 ± 4.649 ng/ml, 72.54 ± 4.864 ng/ml and 79.10 ± 4.773 ng/ml in the ONFH patients with ARCO stage II, stage III and stage IV respectively, showing significant difference among them (P < 0.001). We also found that the area under the curve (AUC) calculated by ROC curve analysis to determine the values for β-catenin levels in ONFH compared with those in the control group was 0.9358 (P < 0.001), where the sensitivity was 77.23% and specificity was 98.00%.
Our results indicate that the increased β-catenin may play a vital role in the progress of ONFH and the level of β-catenin is correlated with ARCO stages. The cut-off concentration may be used as one of the sensitive marks to assess the disease process of ONFH.
Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号通路与股骨头坏死（ONFH）的发病机制密切相关。β-连环蛋白作为 Wnt 信号通路的主要组成部分，在成骨细胞的增殖中起着至关重要的作用。但是，改变β-连环蛋白水平对 ONFH 的早期诊断和分期的影响尚未得到研究。我们的目的是探讨β-连环蛋白水平在 ONFH 进展中的作用。
我们招募了 2016 年 5 月至 2016 年 11 月之间的 101 名处于三个阶段的 ONFH 患者和 50 名健康对照者。根据 Association Research Circulation Osseous（ARCO）分类，我们将患者分为 32 例 2 期，41 例 3 期和 28 例 4 期。我们评估了临床骨组织形态学，β-连环蛋白的表达位置和水平以及血浆β-连环蛋白水平。我们使用 ELISA 和 Western Blot 测定法从血清和组织样本中检测β-连环蛋白的水平。我们还通过免疫组织化学评估了骨组织中β-连环蛋白的表达。使用独立 t 检验和 ANOVA 进行数据分析。
我们发现，ONFH 患者的平均（±SD）血清β-连环蛋白水平为 66.99±3.032ng/ml，高于对照组的 20.14±1.715ng/ml（P<0.001）。此外，ONFH 患者的 ARCO 2 期，3 期和 4 期的β-连环蛋白水平分别为 49.30±4.649ng/ml，72.54±4.864ng/ml和 79.10±4.773ng/ml，它们之间存在显著差异（P<0.001）。我们还发现，通过 ROC 曲线分析确定的 ONFH 与对照组相比β-连环蛋白水平的曲线下面积（AUC）为 0.9358（P<0.001），其中灵敏度为 77.23％，特异性为 98.00％。
我们的结果表明，增加的β-连环蛋白可能在 ONFH 的进展中起重要作用，并且β-连环蛋白的水平与 ARCO 分期相关。截断浓度可用作评估 ONFH 疾病过程的敏感指标之一。
