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Subchondral Bone Osteocyte Lacunae Morphology in End-Stage Osteoarthritis of the Human Tibial Plateau

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Abstract

Subchondral bone remodeling, mediated by osteocytes within the lacuno-canalicular network, plays a crucial role in osteoarthritis (OA) progression. Following cell death, lacunae preserve integrity, offering insights into bone remodeling mechanisms. Limited and controversial data on osteocyte lacuna morphology in OA result from small sample sizes and two-dimensional (2D) techniques that have been used thus far. This study aimed to quantify three-dimensional (3D) osteocyte lacunar characteristics at well-defined tibial plateau locations, known to be differently affected by OA. Specifically, 11 tibial plateaus were obtained from end-stage knee-OA patients with varus deformity. Each plateau provided one sample from the less affected lateral compartment and two samples from the medial compartment, at minimum and maximum bone volume fraction (BV/TV) locations. High-resolution desktop micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) at 0.7 μm voxel resolution imaged the 33 samples. Lacuna number density (Lc.N/BV) and lacuna volume density (Lc.TV/BV) were significantly lower (p < 0.02) in samples from the medial side with maximum BV/TV compared to lateral side samples. In the medial compartment at maximum local BV/TV, mean lacuna volume (Lc.V), total lacuna volume (Lc.TV), and Lc.TV/BV were significantly (p < 0.001) lower than in the region with minimum BV/TV. Lc.N/BV was also significantly lower (p < 0.02) at the maximum local BV/TV location compared to the region with minimum BV/TV. Our findings suggest that subchondral bone lacunae adapt to the changing loads in end-stage OA.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded in part by KU Leuven Internal Funds, Grant C24/16/027.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomechanics Section, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Fahimeh Azari, Anik Banerjee & G. Harry van Lenthe

  2. Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia

    Haniyeh Hemmatian

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  1. Fahimeh Azari
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Contributions

FA contributed to research design, acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data, and drafting the paper. HH contributed to acquisition and revision of the paper. AB contributed to analysis. GHVL contributed to research design, acquisition, interpretation of data, and revision of the paper. All authors have read and approved the final submitted manuscript.

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Correspondence to G. Harry van Lenthe.

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Conflict of interest

Fahimeh Azari, Haniyeh Hemmatian, Anik Banerjee and G. Harry van Lenthe declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

Approval was granted by the ZOL Genk ethical committee (Approval number of the Project: B371201939696) and all patients provided written informed consent.

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Azari, F., Hemmatian, H., Banerjee, A. et al. Subchondral Bone Osteocyte Lacunae Morphology in End-Stage Osteoarthritis of the Human Tibial Plateau. Calcif Tissue Int 115, 78–84 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-024-01226-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-024-01226-z

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