Articular cartilage degradation induced by extensive treadmill exercise is greatly exacerbated by estrogen depletion in mice.

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is considered to be a multifactorial disease with factors such as chronic inflammation, aging, menopause, obesity, genetic background, and mechanical stress. Estrogen depletion by ovariectomy (OVX) is reported to accelerate cartilage degradation in young female mice. Too much mechanical stress on articular cartilage, which may be caused by overweight, joint instability, or over-exercise, is reported to induce several catabolic factors for articular cartilage. These individual data clearly show that all these factors are involved in the pathogenesis of OA, however, orchestrated effects of these factors in OA progression are still unclear. To analyze the crosstalk between estrogen signal and mechanical stress on articular cartilage homeostasis, we analyzed the severity of cartilage damage after treadmill exercise in OVX mice. Here we reported that degree of articular cartilage degeneration induced by extensive treadmill exercise was greatly exacerbated by OVX.