Skip to main content
Log in

Osteoarthritis

Is OA a mechanical or systemic disease?

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Rheumatology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a heterogeneous group of diseases with different pathogenesis in different joints. What effect do metabolic factors, inflammation and obesity have on OA in non-loadbearing structures? A new study reports that, in the absence of knee OA, systemic processes are important in the pathogenesis of hand OA.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1: The spectrum of knee OA.

References

  1. Visser, A. W. et al. The relative contribution of mechanical stress and systemic processes in different types of osteoarthritis: the NEO study. Ann. Rheum Dis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-205012 (2014).

  2. Jones, G., Ding, C., Scott, F., Glisson, M. & Cicuttini, F. Early radiographic osteoarthritis is associated with substantial changes in cartilage volume and tibial bone surface area in both males and females. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 12, 169–174 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cicuttini, F. M., Jones, G., Forbes, A. & Wluka, A. E. Rate of cartilage loss at two years predicts subsequent total knee arthroplasty: a prospective study. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 63, 1124–1127 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Stannus, O. et al. Circulating levels of IL-6 and TNF-α are associated with knee radiographic osteoarthritis and knee cartilage loss in older adults. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 18, 1441–1447 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Jin, X. et al. Circulating C reactive protein in osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann. Rheum. Dis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204494 (2013).

  6. Roemer, F. W. et al. Presence of MRI-detected joint effusion and synovitis increases the risk of cartilage loss in knees without osteoarthritis at 30-month follow-up: the MOST study. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 70, 1804–1809 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ding, C. et al. Association between leptin, body composition, sex and knee cartilage morphology in older adults: the Tasmanian older adult cohort (TASOAC) study. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 67, 1256–1261 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tanamas, S. et al. Does knee malalignment increase the risk of development and progression of knee osteoarthritis? A systematic review. Arthritis Rheum. 61, 459–467 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Carman, W. J., Sowers, M., Hawthorne, V. M. & Weissfeld, L. A. Obesity as a risk factor for osteoarthritis of the hand and wrist: a prospective study. Am. J. Epidemiol. 139, 119–129 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Massengale, M., Reichmann, W. M, Losina, E., Solomon, D. H. & Katz, J. N. The relationship between hand osteoarthritis and serum leptin concentration in participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Arthritis Res. Ther. 14, R132 (2012).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A.E.W. is supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship, Clinical level 2 (1063574).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Flavia M. Cicuttini.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cicuttini, F., Wluka, A. Is OA a mechanical or systemic disease?. Nat Rev Rheumatol 10, 515–516 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2014.114

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2014.114

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation