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Biochemical and Morphological Abnormalities of Subchondral Bone and Their Association with Cartilage Degeneration in Spontaneous Osteoarthritis

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate how biochemical composition in subchondral bone (SB) relates to the sulfated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) content of articular cartilage (AC) in the knee joint of guinea pigs from the early to moderate osteoarthritis (OA). Male Dunkin Hartley strain guinea pigs were grouped according to age (1, 3, 6, and 9 months, with 10 guinea pigs in each group). The biochemical properties of the AC and SB in the tibial plateau of the guinea pigs were determined through histology and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. Furthermore, the microstructures of the SB were investigated using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and histology. Increased thickness and bone mineral density (BMD) and decreased porosity were observed in the subchondral plate (SP) with the progression of spontaneous OA, accompanied by a decreasing trend in sGAG integrated optical density (IOD) of AC. Compared with the changes in the microstructure of subchondral bone, the content of sGAG was more correlated to the changes in the mineral/matrix ratio of subchondral bone. The mineralization of the matrix was significantly correlated to the content of sGAG compared with crystallinity/maturity and Type B carbonate substitution. PO43− ν1/Amide III was more correlated to the content of sGAG than PO43− ν1/Amide I, PO43− ν1/CH2 wag during the progression of spontaneous osteoarthritis. This study demonstrated that the mineralization of subchondral bone plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of OA. Future studies may access to the mineralization of subchondral bone in addition to its microstructure in the study for pathogenesis and early diagnosis of osteoarthritis.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11872095 and 31570945) and National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2016YFB1101101).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Ministry of Education, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Pengling Ren, Haijun Niu, Haipeng Cen, Shaowei Jia, He Gong & Yubo Fan

  2. Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Pengling Ren & He Gong

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  1. Pengling Ren
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  2. Haijun Niu
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  4. Shaowei Jia
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  5. He Gong
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Contributions

PR had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Conception and design of the study: PR, HN, HG, YF; Acquisition of data: PR, HC, SJ; Analysis and interpretation of data: PR, HN, HG, YF; Drafting the manuscript: PR, HN, HC, SJ; Final approval: all authors.

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Correspondence to He Gong.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations of the Laboratory Animal Standardization Committee and was approved by the Science and Ethics Committee of the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering in Beihang University, China (Approval ID: BM201900064).

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Ren, P., Niu, H., Cen, H. et al. Biochemical and Morphological Abnormalities of Subchondral Bone and Their Association with Cartilage Degeneration in Spontaneous Osteoarthritis. Calcif Tissue Int 109, 179–189 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-021-00834-3

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