OSTEOARTHRITIS AND KNEE JOINT PAIN

描述（由申请人提供）： 摘要：骨关节炎的症状是寻求医疗援助的主要原因，但没有有效的方法来减轻骨关节炎（OA）引起的疼痛。我们的长期目标是通过研究实验性OA模型中的神经解剖学方法，然后在人体关节组织中进行验证，来了解软骨退变程度与关节疼痛实际体验之间的差异。我们提出OA疼痛感觉可以独立于进行性软骨退化而发展，并且关节疼痛的严重程度是由于支配背根神经节的感觉神经元中的细胞和分子可塑性以及滑膜中的病理变化（例如，滑膜炎、血管生成）。我们将确定独立于软骨退变程度的促进OA中亲伤害感受的基本因素。我们的研究也将为开发治疗OA症状的临床策略提供重要的经验支持。我们的研究结果将提供一个新的观点，主要疾病修饰的慢性疼痛机制，伴随着膝关节退行性变的OA。在更广泛的层面上，该提案的结果将通过澄清肌肉骨骼组织变性和衰弱性OA症状之间的关系来影响我们的概念观点和未来的研究翻译。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ABSTRACT: Osteoarthritic symptom is the key reason to seek medical assistance, yet there is no effective way to relieve osteoarthritis (OA)-induced pain. Our long term goal is to understand the discrepancy between the degree of cartilage degeneration and the actual experience of joint pain by investigating the neuroanatomical approaches in an experimental OA model followed by validation in human joint tissues. We propose that OA pain sensation can develop independently of progressive cartilage degeneration, and that severity of joint pain is due to cellular and molecular plasticity in the sensory neurons of the innervating dorsal root ganglion and pathological changes in synovium (e.g., synovitis, angiogenesis). We will identify the fundamental factors that facilitate pro- nociception in OA independently of the degree of cartilage degeneration. Our studies will also provide important empirical support for the development of clinical strategies to treat OA symptoms. Our results will provide a novel view of major disease-modified chronic pain mechanisms that accompany degeneration of knee joints in OA. At a broader level, results from this proposal will impact our conceptual perspectives and future research translation by clarifying relationships between musculoskeletal tissue degeneration and debilitating OA symptoms.