The Role of Autophagy in Osteoarthritic Cartilage

Wei-Chun Kao; Jian-Chih Chen; Ping-Cheng Liu; Cheng-Chang Lu; Sung-Yen Lin; Shu-Chun Chuang; Shun-Cheng Wu; Ling-Hua Chang; Mon-Juan Lee; Chung-Da Yang; Tien-Ching Lee; Ying-Chun Wang; Jhong-You Li; Chun-Wang Wei; Chung-Hwan Chen

doi:10.3390/biom12101357

The Role of Autophagy in Osteoarthritic Cartilage

Biomolecules. 2022 Sep 23;12(10):1357. doi: 10.3390/biom12101357.

Authors

Wei-Chun Kao^{1

2

3

4

5}, Jian-Chih Chen^{1

2

3

4}, Ping-Cheng Liu^{1

2

3

4}, Cheng-Chang Lu^{1

2

3

4

6}, Sung-Yen Lin^{1

2

3

4}, Shu-Chun Chuang^{1

3}, Shun-Cheng Wu^{1

3}, Ling-Hua Chang^{1

3}, Mon-Juan Lee^{7

8}, Chung-Da Yang⁹, Tien-Ching Lee^{1

2

3

4}, Ying-Chun Wang^{1

2

3

4

10}, Jhong-You Li^{1

2

3

4

9}, Chun-Wang Wei¹¹, Chung-Hwan Chen^{1

2

3

4

9

11

12

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Orthopaedic Research Center, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
² Department of Orthopedics, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
³ Regeneration Medicine and Cell Therapy Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Orthopedics, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Medical Education and Research, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813414, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Orthopedics, Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, Kaohsiung 812, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Medical Science Industries, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan 71101, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Bioscience Technology, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan 71101, Taiwan.
⁹ Graduate Institute of Animal Vaccine Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912301, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Department of Orthopedics, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung 80145, Taiwan.
¹¹ Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
¹² Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.
¹³ Institute of Medical Science and Technology, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80420, Taiwan.
¹⁴ Graduate Institute of Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912301, Taiwan.

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common diseases leading to physical disability, with age being the main risk factor, and degeneration of articular cartilage is the main focus for the pathogenesis of OA. Autophagy is a crucial intracellular homeostasis system recycling flawed macromolecules and cellular organelles to sustain the metabolism of cells. Growing evidences have revealed that autophagy is chondroprotective by regulating apoptosis and repairing the function of damaged chondrocytes. Then, OA is related to autophagy depending on different stages and models. In this review, we discuss the character of autophagy in OA and the process of the autophagy pathway, which can be modulated by some drugs, key molecules and non-coding RNAs (microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and circular RNAs). More in-depth investigations of autophagy are needed to find therapeutic targets or diagnostic biomarkers through in vitro and in vivo situations, making autophagy a more effective way for OA treatment in the future. The aim of this review is to introduce the concept of autophagy and make readers realize its impact on OA. The database we searched in is PubMed and we used the keywords listed below to find appropriate article resources.

Keywords: AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK); Autophagy; Osteoarthritis (OA); circular RNAs; long non-coding RNAs; microRNAs; non-coding RNAs.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Apoptosis / physiology
Autophagy / physiology
Biomarkers / metabolism
Cartilage, Articular*
Humans
MicroRNAs* / metabolism
Osteoarthritis* / pathology
RNA, Circular

Substances

RNA, Circular
MicroRNAs
Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This study was supported in part by the National Health Research Institute (NHRI-EX101-9935EI) of Taiwan, Kaohsiung Medical University (NPUST-KMU-109-P002, NCTUKMU108-BIO-04, KMU-TC108A02-1, KMU-DK105009, KMU-DK(B) 110002 and KMU-111-P005), Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital (KMTTH-109-R014, KMTTH-DK(B) 110002-1 and KMTTH-110-R008), and the Minister of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST 110-2314-B-006-037-MY3, 108-2314-B-037-059-MY3, 110-2314-B-037-029-MY3 and 111-2314-B-037-106-). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.