Bone changes have always been the focus of research on osteoarthritis, but the number of studies on synovitis has increased only over the last 10 years. Our current understanding is that the mechanism of osteoarthritis involves all the tissues that make up the joints, including nerve sprouting, pannus formation, and extracellular matrix environmental changes in the synovium. These factors together determine synovial fibrosis and may be closely associated with the clinical symptoms of pain, hyperalgesia, and stiffness in osteoarthritis. In this review, we summarize the consensus of clinical work, the potential pathological mechanisms, the possible therapeutic targets, and the available therapeutic strategies for synovial fibrosis in osteoarthritis to gain insight and provide a foundation for further study.
Keywords: extracellular matrix; fibroblast-like synoviocytes; fibrosis; osteoarthritis; synovitis.
Copyright © 2021 Zhang, Xing, Huang, Ding, Zhang, Li, Li, Wang and Mao.