Biochemical/immunochemical biomarkers of osteoarthritis: utility for prediction of incident or progressive osteoarthritis

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Type II collagen

Hyaline cartilages, which include articular cartilage, have an extensive extracellular matrix that is secreted and maintained by chondrocytes. In the adult the matrix can constitute as much as 95% of the total volume of the tissue. This matrix endows cartilage with its reversible deformability and ability to dissipate load [2]. The principal structural component of cartilage is its extensive network of collagen molecules, which are arranged in fibrils, giving cartilage its tensile properties.

Issues confounding the use of biomarkers

In establishing assays for biomarkers it is important that the biomarker represents a defined product of a molecular event such as the synthesis or degradation of a matrix molecule or a combination of both (“turnover”). It is essential that researchers perform basic studies of molecular processes in tissues to understand the changes that occur in OA. By doing so researchers should be able to develop new biomarker assays more effectively and interpret the results obtained from these assays more

Preclinical studies

With the challenges in detecting early-onset human OA it is important to determine whether or not this event can be identified by biomarkers. By first using experimental animal models of OA, a more thorough assessment of the relationship of the development of tissue pathology to changes in biomarkers can be obtained. Experimentally-induced OA affords the advantage of allowing researchers to know precisely when the pathology was induced. Transection of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in

Summary

In this brief review the authors endeavored to show how methods developed for molecular studies of the development, onset, and progression of OA have been used to develop biomarker assays that might be of use in the detection of incident OA and in progression of established OA (Fig. 2). These assays involve analyses of specific molecular products in body fluids that result from the cleavage and synthesis of molecules in specific skeletal tissues and from inflammatory processes associated with

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dorothy Redhead and Guylaine Bedard who assisted in the preparation of this manuscript.

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    The author's research is funded by the Shriners Hospitals for Children, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institute of Aging, the National Institutes of Health, and the Canadian Arthritis Network.

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