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Role of inflammation in the process of clinical Kashin-Beck disease: latest findings and interpretations

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Abstract

Kashin-Beck disease (KBD), a particular type of osteoarthritis (OA), and an endemic disease with articular cartilage damage and chondrocytes apoptosis, can affect many joints, and the most commonly affected joints are the knee, ankle, and hand. KBD has traditionally been classified as a non-inflammatory OA. However, recent studies have shown that inflammation has played an important role in the development of KBD. Nowadays, clinical KBD is not only an endemic disease, but also a combined result of many other non-endemic factors, which contains age, altered biomechanics, joint trauma and secondary OA. The characteristics of the developmental joint failure of advanced KBD, because of the biochemical and mechanical processes, are tightly linked with the interaction of joint damage and its immune response, as well as the subsequent state of chronic inflammation leading to KBD progression. In this review, we focus on the epidemiology, pathology, imaging, cytokines and transduction pathways investigating the association of inflammation with KBD; meanwhile, a wide range of data will be discussed to elicit our current hypotheses considering the role of inflammation and immune activation in KBD development.

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Abbreviations

APCDD:

Adenomatosis polyposis coli down-regulated

AQP:

Aquaglyceroporin

CCP:

Cyclic citrullinated peptide

COX:

Cyclooxygenase

CSGALNACT:

Chondroitin sulfate N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase

CTX-II:

Type II collagen

DAMPs:

Damage (or danger) associated molecular patterns

ECM:

Extracellular matrix

EFNA1:

Ephrin-A1

FGF:

Fibroblast growth factor

IGF:

Insulin-like growth factor

IL:

Interleukin

JNK:

c-Jun N-terminal kinase

KBD:

Kashin-Beck disease

LEF:

Lethal factor

MAPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

MMP:

Matrix metalloproteinase

NO:

Nitric oxide

NOS:

Nitric oxide synthase

NSAID:

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

OA:

Osteoarthritis

PAMPs:

Pathogen associated molecular patterns

PIM2:

Pim-2 proto-oncogene

PTHrP:

Parathyroid hormone-related peptide

PTN:

Pleiotrophin

RA:

Rheumatoid arthritis

SMAD9:

SMAD family member 9

STK11:

Serine/threonine kinase 11

TGF-β:

Transforming growth factor β

TIMP:

Metallopeptidase inhibitor

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor α

VEGF:

Vascular endothelial growth factor

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (81402639, 81472924), Shaanxi Province Natural Science Basic Research Program for Youths (2015JQ8310) and the China Postdoctoral Science Fund (2014M562423).

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Correspondence to Jing Han or Xiong Guo.

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Han, J., Wang, W., Qu, C. et al. Role of inflammation in the process of clinical Kashin-Beck disease: latest findings and interpretations. Inflamm. Res. 64, 853–860 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-015-0861-6

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