MicroRNAs and Osteoarthritis in Equine

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common musculoskeletal disorder. It is a degenerative joint disease characterized by degradation of articular cartilage, thickening of subchondral bone, and formation of osteophytes. The challenge of the present study is the early diagnosis of OA in donkey using a reliable grading of the disease based on clinical, chemical and molecular alterations. The present study is aiming to set up reliable circulating diagnostic biomarkers for OA in equine. For this purpose we applied the following steps: I- Induction of osteoarthritis and samples collection: 1- Collection of the blood and synovial fluid samples from 9 male adult donkeys of local breed. 2- The left radiocarpal joint in each donkey was intra-articularlry injected with singe dose of 25mg sodium monoiodoacetate. II- Clinical assessment: 1- Grading of Lameness score. 2- X-ray filming and ultrasonography of radiocarpal joints were taken weekly till 7thmonth. III- Biochemical assessments: 1- Determination of glycosaminoglycans concentration (total GAGs and CS) by HPLC. 2- Assessment of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activity by Heparin enhanced gelatin zymographical assay for Collagenlytic MMP (MMP1 & MMP13) and Gelatinase activity(MMP2, 9 & latent MMP9). 3- Assessment of TypeII collagen (Col2a1) level of expression by immunoblotting.