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Abstract
Objective
Synovial inflammation contributes to cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis (OA) development. Targeting the inflammation process may provide a promising strategy for OA treatment. It has been demonstrated that C1q/tumour necrosis factor-related protein-9 (CTRP9) has immunosuppression capabilities. Thus, we conducted this study to investigate the role of CTRP9 in OA and its therapeutic potential.
Method
The expression level of CTRP9 was quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), serum, and synovial cells (SCs) isolated from OA patients by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The relationship between the expression level of CTRP9 and the disease activity of OA was determined. The inflammation-suppressing effects of CTRP9 were assessed in vitro.
Results
The expression level of CTRP9 was increased in the PBMCs and serum of OA compared to healthy controls. The serum level of CTRP9 was found to be positively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, and visual analogue scale score. In addition, CTRP9 protein suppressed the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-1β, in PBMCs and SCs in vitro. CTRP9 was increased in OA patients and positively correlated with the disease activity. The recombinant CTRP9 had inflammation-suppressing activities in vitro.
Conclusion
CTRP9 may have therapeutic potential for treating OA. Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized as cartilage destruction resulting from synovial inflammation (Citation1–6). According to the clinical symptoms and levels of inflammation, OA has been divided into primary generalized osteoarthritis (PGOA) and erosive inflammatory osteoarthritis (EIOA) (Citation7). The only available treatment for OA is joint replacement. Thus, it is necessary to develop novel and effective therapeutic strategies to treat OA. Because synovial inflammation contributes to OA development, targeting the inflammation process may provide a promising strategy for OA treatment. Previous investigations showed that pro-inflammatory factors promoted OA development (Citation8–10), while anti-inflammatory factors suppressed it (Citation11–14). Thus, we conducted the present study to investigate the role of C1q/tumour necrosis factor-related protein-9 (CTRP9), an anti-inflammatory factor (Citation15), in OA, and its therapeutic potential.
Author contributions
FD collected the samples, analysed data, and wrote the draft of the manuscript; MJ conducted the qPCR; ZZ conducted the ELISA; FL conducted the cell culture and treatment; and YL supervised the project, interpreted data, and wrote the manuscript.
Data accessibility statement
All data have been presented in the figures. Other related information is available upon request to the corresponding author.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supporting information
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.
Supplementary Table S1.
Supplementary Table S2.
Supplementary Table S3.
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