TITLE:
Synovial Neuronal Changes in Knee Joint Osteoarthritis
AUTHORS:
Haq Nawaz, Masood Umer, Shahryar Noordin, Bo Christer Bertilson, Jian Li, Aisha Siddiqah Ahmed, Mahmood Ahmed
KEYWORDS:
Osteoarthritis, Knee Joint, Pain, Inflammation, Neuropeptides
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Rheumatology and Autoimmune Diseases,
Vol.6 No.2,
May
27,
2016
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose is to study whether pain and inflammation in knee joint osteoarthritis (OA)
are associated with local synovial neuronal changes. Methods: Synovial biopsies were harvested
from the medial and lateral knee compartments from OA patients undergoing total joint replacement
surgery. All patients had predominant pain at the medial joint compartment. Pain and knee
joint function were evaluated by knee society score (KSS). Synovial inflammation was analyzed by
histopathological analysis and expression of growth associated protein-43 (GAP-43), sensory (SP,
CGRP) and autonomic (NPY, VIP, TH) neuropeptides was studied by single and double immunohistochemistry
techniques. Results: We observed reduced KSS and increased inflammatory score in
synovial membrane of medial knee compartment. A significant increase in GAP-43 [P = 0.001], SP [P
= 0.05], CGRP [P = 0.05] and TH [P = 0.05] expression was observed and SP, CGRP and NPY were
found to be co-existed predominantly with GAP-43 in synovial membrane collected from medial
compared to the lateral knee compartment. Conclusions: Regenerating nerve fibers containing
sensory and autonomic neuropeptides are associated with pain and inflammation in knee joint OA.