Overexpression of @entity1550 in @entity1 osteoarthritic cartilage is associated with the SMAD-independent XXXX signalling pathway.

@entity1 @entity1841 @entity571 @entity7379 @entity174 @entity1550 @entity2533
INTRODUCTION: In vitro and animal model of @entity571 ( @entity571 ) studies suggest that @entity2533 signalling is involved in @entity571 , but @entity1 data is limited. We undertook this study to elucidate the role of @entity2533 signalling pathway in @entity571 by comparing the expression levels of @entity2533 and @entity1841 as ligands, @entity7379 as an intracellular mediator, and @entity1550 as a targeted gene between @entity1 osteoarthritic and healthy cartilage. METHODS: @entity1 cartilage samples were collected from @entity1 undergoing total hip/knee joint replacement surgery due to primary @entity571 or hip @entity174 as controls. RNA was extracted from the cartilage tissues. Real-time quantitative PCR was performed to measure gene expression. Mann-Whitney test was utilized to compare the expression levels of @entity2533 , @entity1841 , @entity7379 and @entity1550 in @entity1 cartilage between @entity571 cases and controls. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rho) was calculated to examine the correlation between the expression levels of the four genes studied and non-parametric regression was used to adjust for covariates. RESULTS: A total of 32 @entity571 cases (25 hip @entity571 and 7 knee @entity571 ) and 21 healthy controls were included. The expression of @entity2533 , @entity7379 , and @entity1550 were on average 70  %, 46  %, and 355  % higher, respectively, whereas the expression of @entity1841 was 88  % lower, in @entity571 -affected cartilage than that of controls (all p   <   0.03), but no difference was observed between hip and knee @entity571 (all p   >   0.4). The expression of @entity2533 was correlated with the expression of @entity7379 (rho   =   0.50, p   =   0.003) and @entity1550 (rho   =   0.46, p   =   0.007) in @entity571 -affected cartilage and the significance became stronger after adjustment for age, sex, and BMI. The expression of @entity1841 was negatively correlated with both @entity2533 (rho   =   -0.50, p   =   0.02) and @entity1550 (rho   =   -0.48, p   =   0.02) in healthy cartilage, but the significance was altered after adjustment for the covariates. There was no correlation between the expression of @entity7379 and @entity1550 . CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that @entity1550 expression is associated with an increased expression of @entity2533 in @entity571 -affected cartilage, possibly through SMAD-independent @entity2533 pathway. Furthermore, @entity2533 / @entity7379 is overactivated in @entity571 cartilage; yet, the consequence of this overactivation remains to be established.
