Summary
Objective
To investigate the role of Piezo1 and Piezo2 in surgically induced osteoarthritis
(OA) in mice.
Design
Male conditional knockout (cKO) mice missing Piezo1 and Piezo2 in the joint using Gdf5-Cre transgenic mice were induced with post-traumatic OA by destabilization of the medial
meniscus (DMM) of the right knee joint at 12 weeks of age. The severity of OA was
histologically assessed at 24 weeks of age. OA-associated pain was evaluated by static
weight bearing analysis. Additionally, articular chondrocytes isolated from cKO mice
were exposed to fluid flow shear stress (FFSS) to evaluate the expression of OA-associated
genes.
Results
Mice with conditional deletion of Piezo1 and Piezo2 showed normal joint development with no overt histological changes in the knee joint
at 12 weeks and 24 weeks. DMM surgery induced moderate to severe OA in both control
and cKO mice (median OARSI score: control, 4.67; cKO, 4.23, P = 0.3082), although a few cKO mice showed milder OA. Pain assessment by static weight-bearing
analysis suggested Piezo ablation in the joint has no beneficial effects on pain.
FFSS increased the expression of OA-related genes both in control and cKO mice to
similar extents.
Conclusion
Piezo1 and Piezo2 are not essential for normal joint development. Genetic ablation
of Piezo channels did not confer evident protective effects on OA progression in mice.
In vitro data suggests that different mechanotransducers other than Piezo channels mediate
FFSS in mechanical stress-induced gene expression.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 17, 2023
Accepted:
January 19,
2023
Received:
October 12,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
