{"title":"Mechanoepigenetics in musculoskeletal disease","authors":"Clarissa R. Coveney, Terence D. Capellini","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.05.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2025.05.012","url":null,"abstract":"This review explores the intricate interplay between genetic variants, mechanical forces, and the epigenetic landscape (defined as ‘mechanoepigenetics’), particularly in the context of musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases such as osteoarthritis. Whilst our understanding of Mendelian monogenic disease has progressed with exome sequencing and the generation of novel gene therapies, common complex diseases characterized by difficult-to-pinpoint non-coding genetic variants have posed significant challenges. The recent implementation of techniques such as ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and chromatin capture (Hi-C) has been pivotal in understanding how enhancers, promoters, and repressors interact with target genes to control gene expression. However, the data they generate are only more recently being used to filter non-coding variants for regulatory impacts. Even more pressing is that the epigenome and long-range interactions can be modified by environmental factors such as mechanical forces, and this is poorly understood, especially with respect to impacts on variant function. Here, we highlight the role of the dynamic mechanical environment in the regulation of the epigenome to identify mechanically mediated regulatory region interactions to streamline the identification of variant activity and how they might be impacted. We also explore the potential for targeting mechanically responsive loci with epigenome-modifying drugs. By integrating genetic, epigenetic, and mechanical insights, this review aims to advance understanding of disease mechanisms and propel the development of novel therapeutic strategies for MSK diseases, drawing parallels with emerging approaches in other fields.","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zehra Akkaya, Wynton M. Sims, John A. Lynch, Maximillian T. Löffler, Felix Gassert, Michael Nevitt, Charles E. McCulloch, Nancy E. Lane, Valentina Pedoia, Katharina Ziegeler, Thomas M. Link, Gabby B. Joseph
{"title":"Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with knee osteoarthritis: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative","authors":"Zehra Akkaya, Wynton M. Sims, John A. Lynch, Maximillian T. Löffler, Felix Gassert, Michael Nevitt, Charles E. McCulloch, Nancy E. Lane, Valentina Pedoia, Katharina Ziegeler, Thomas M. Link, Gabby B. Joseph","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.05.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2025.05.011","url":null,"abstract":"To explore the relationship between ultra-processed food (UPF) intake and knee osteoarthritis (KOA)-related imaging and clinical outcomes in men and women.","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cindy Miranda Brawner, Cassandra Sturdy, Liubov Arbeeva, Yvonne M. Golightly, Amanda E. Nelson, Matlock A. Jeffries
{"title":"Borderline acceleration in blood epigenetic age of unclear biological importance in knee OA progression: Specimens and data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative and Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project","authors":"Cindy Miranda Brawner, Cassandra Sturdy, Liubov Arbeeva, Yvonne M. Golightly, Amanda E. Nelson, Matlock A. Jeffries","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.05.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2025.05.010","url":null,"abstract":"Aging is among the strongest risk factors for osteoarthritis (OA). Although epigenetics plays a role in OA, previous studies have not found accelerated peripheral blood epigenetic aging among OA patients overall. The goal of this study was to evaluate peripheral blood epigenetic aging rates among various types of OA progressors and non-progressors (NPs).","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Castro-Viñuelas , N. Viudes-Sarrión , A.V. Rojo-García , S. Monteagudo , R.J. Lories , I. Jonkers
{"title":"Mechanical loading rescues mechanoresponsiveness in a human osteoarthritis explant model despite Wnt activation","authors":"R. Castro-Viñuelas , N. Viudes-Sarrión , A.V. Rojo-García , S. Monteagudo , R.J. Lories , I. Jonkers","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2024.02.945","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.joca.2024.02.945","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div><span>Optimizing rehabilitation strategies for osteoarthritis<span> necessitates a comprehensive understanding of chondrocytes’ mechanoresponse in both health and disease, especially in the context of the interplay between loading and key pathways involved in osteoarthritis (OA) development, like canonical </span></span>Wnt signaling<span>. This study aims to elucidate the role of Wnt signaling in the mechanoresponsiveness of healthy and osteoarthritic human cartilage.</span></div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We used an ex-vivo model involving short-term physiological mechanical loading of human cartilage explants<span>. First, the loading protocol for subsequent experiments was determined. Next, loading was applied to non-OA-explants with or without Wnt activation with CHIR99021. Molecular read-outs of anabolic, pericellular matrix and matrix remodeling markers were used to assess the effect of Wnt on cartilage mechanoresponse. Finally, the same set-up was used to study the effect of loading in cartilage from patients with established OA.</span></div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Our results confirm that physiological loading maintains expression of anabolic genes in non-OA cartilage, and indicate a deleterious effect of Wnt activation in the chondrocyte mechanoresponsiveness. This suggests that loading-induced regulation of chondrocyte markers occurs downstream of canonical Wnt signaling. Interestingly, our study highlighted contrasting mechanoresponsiveness in the model of Wnt activation and the established OA samples, with established OA cartilage maintaining its mechanoresponsiveness, and mechanical loading rescuing the chondrogenic phenotype.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study provides insights into the mechanoresponsiveness of human cartilage in both non-OA and OA conditions. These findings hold the potential to contribute to the development of strategies that optimize the effect of dynamic compression by correcting OA pathological cell signaling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"33 6","pages":"Pages 692-702"},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140143930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Letter to the editor concerning ‘Diagnostic performance of self-reported knee crepitus using a Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score item’","authors":"Li Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.02.784","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.02.784","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"33 6","pages":"Page 770"},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143597314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FEASIBILITY AND PRELIMINARY EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (RAMP) ON KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS IN PRIMARY CARE – A PILOT RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL","authors":"Regina Wing-Shan Sit , Hugo Pak-Yiu Fong","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.03.041","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.03.041","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"33 6","pages":"Page 790"},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144185962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A pH-responsive novel delivery system utilizing carbon quantum dots loaded with PT2385 for targeted inhibition of HIF-2α in the treatment of osteoarthritis","authors":"Xiaochun wei, Chengming Zhang, Li Guo, Pengcui Li","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.03.054","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.03.054","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"33 6","pages":"Pages 798-799"},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144184268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Postoperative evaluation of total knee arthroplasty and high tibial osteotomy using the locomotive syndrome risk test","authors":"Kazuhiro Uenaka , Mitsuhiko Kubo","doi":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.03.030","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.joca.2025.03.030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19654,"journal":{"name":"Osteoarthritis and Cartilage","volume":"33 6","pages":"Pages 784-785"},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144184284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}