Pyroptosis: A Novel Intervention Target in the Progression of Osteoarthritis

Xingyu Chang; Yuchen Kang; Yuxuan Yang; Yajie Chen; Yanyu Shen; Chenjun Jiang; Yi Shen

doi:10.2147/JIR.S368501

Pyroptosis: A Novel Intervention Target in the Progression of Osteoarthritis

J Inflamm Res. 2022 Jul 11:15:3859-3871. doi: 10.2147/JIR.S368501. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xingyu Chang^#¹, Yuchen Kang^#², Yuxuan Yang^#¹, Yajie Chen¹, Yanyu Shen¹, Chenjun Jiang¹, Yi Shen³

Affiliations

¹ The First Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, People's Republic of China.
² The Second Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Orthopaedics, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common chronic joint diseases and is gradually becoming the main cause of disability and joint pain in the elderly worldwide. Pyroptosis is a regulated programmed cell death triggered by inflammasomes. It leads to cell swelling, lysis, and bioactive molecule secretion. Studies found that the damaged chondrocytes in OA joints had morphological characteristics of pyroptosis, and the cytokines associated with pyroptosis in synovial fluid increased, indicating that pyroptosis may have certain impacts on the pathological progression of OA. This review briefly summarizes the molecular mechanisms of pyroptosis and the epidemiology and pathogenesis of OA. Furthermore, we discussed the role of pyroptosis in articular cartilage and synovium during OA and reviewed the progress of pyroptosis-related molecules in the targeted therapy of OA joints, hoping to provide feasible directions for the diversified treatment of OA.

Keywords: GSDMD; NLRP3 inflammasome; articular cartilage; osteoarthritis; pyroptosis; synovium.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81873669, 81800209); Gansu science and technology planning project (21JR7RA445); National Innovation and Entrepreneurship training program (202210730175); Lanzhou University Innovation and Entrepreneurship training program (20220060133, 20220060024).