Abstract
Leptin is known to play an important role in the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis (OA). This study investigated whether synovial fluid (SF) leptin level is related to the radiographic severity of OA and its role as a quantitative marker for the detection of OA. SF was obtained from 42 OA patients who underwent knee surgery and 10 who had no abnormality of articular cartilage during arthroscopic examination. The progression of OA was classified by Kellgren–Lawrence grading scale. The concentrations of leptin were measured with commercial enzyme-linked-immunosorbent serologic assay kits. Median leptin concentrations in SF were significantly higher in OA patients (median 4.40 ng/ml; range 0.5–15.8) compared to controls (median 2.05 ng/ml; range 1.0–4.6; P = 0.006). SF leptin levels showed significant difference according to the severity of OA (P = 0.0125). Median SF leptin level was highest in stage IV patients (11.1 ng/ml), which was significantly higher compared to all other groups including controls (P < 0.05). Age showed a significant positive correlation with leptin concentrations in OA patients (P < 0.05), but not in controls. These results demonstrate that SF leptin concentrations were closely related to the radiographic severity of OA, suggesting that SF leptin levels could be used as an effective marker for quantitative detection of OA.
References
Garnero P, Landewe R, Boers M et al (2002) Association of baseline levels of markers of bone and cartilage degradation with long-term progression of joint damage in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: the COBRA study. Arthritis Rheum 11:2847–2856
Kellgren JH, Lawrence JS (1957) Radiological assessment of osteo-arthrosis. Ann Rheum Dis 16:494–502
Dahlberg L, Ryd L, Heinegard D, Lohmander LS (2003) Proteoglycan fragments in joint fluid. Influence of arthrosis and inflammation. Acta Orthop Scand 4:417–423
Maiotti M, Monteleone G, Tarantino U, Fasciglione GF, Marini S, Coletta M (2000) Correlation between osteoarthritic cartilage damage and levels of proteinases and proteinase inhibitors in synovial fluid from the knee joint. Arthroscopy 5:522–526
Takahashi M, Naito K, Abe M, Sawada T, Nagano A (2004) Relationship between radiographic grading of osteoarthritis and the biochemical markers for arthritis in knee osteoarthritis. Arthritis Res Ther 3:R208–R212
Chambers MG, Bayliss MT, Mason RM (1997) Chondrocyte cytokine and growth factor expression in murine osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 5:301–308
Goldenberg MM (1999) Etanercept, a novel drug for the treatment of patients with severe, active rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Ther 1:75–87
Webb GR, Westacott CI, Elson CJ (1997) Chondrocyte tumor necrosis factor receptors and focal loss of cartilage in osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 6:427–437
Westacott CI, Sharif M (1996) Cytokines in osteoarthritis: mediators or markers of joint destruction? Semin Arthritis Rheum 4:254–272
Chehab FF, Mounzih K, Lu R, Lim ME (1997) Early onset of reproductive function in normal female mice treated with leptin. Science 5296:88–90
Sierra-Honigmann MR, Nath AK, Murakami C et al (1998) Biological action of leptin as an angiogenic factor. Science 5383:1683–1686
Figenschau Y, Knutsen G, Shahazeydi S, Johansen O, Sveinbjornsson B (2001) Human articular chondrocytes express functional leptin receptors. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 287:190–197
Dumond H, Presle N, Terlain B et al (2003) Evidence for a key role of leptin in osteoarthritis. Arthritis Rheum 11:3118–3129
Van Beuningen HM, Glansbeek HL, van der Kraan PM, van den Berg WB (2000) Osteoarthritis-like changes in the murine knee joint resulting from intra-articular transforming growth factor-beta injections. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 1:25–33
Redini F, Mauviel A, Pronost S, Loyau G, Pujol JP (1993) Transforming growth factor beta exerts opposite effects from interleukin-1 beta on cultured rabbit articular chondrocytes through reduction of interleukin-1 receptor expression. Arthritis Rheum 1:44–50
Teichtahl AJ, Wluka AE, Proietto J, Cicuttini FM (2005) Obesity and the female sex, risk factors for knee osteoarthritis that may be attributable to systemic or local leptin biosynthesis and its cellular effects. Med Hypotheses 65:312–315
Simopoulou T, Malizos KN, Iliopoulos D et al (2007) Differential expression of leptin and leptin’s receptor isoform (Ob-Rb) mRNA between advanced and minimally affected osteoarthritic cartilage; effect on cartilage metabolism. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 8:872–883
Fernandes JC, Martel-Pelletier J, Pelletier JP (2002) The role of cytokines in osteoarthritis pathophysiology. Biorheology 39:237–246
Tetlow LC, Adlam DJ, Woolley DE (2001) Matrix metalloproteinase and proinflammatory cytokine production by chondrocytes of human osteoarthritic cartilage: associations with degenerative changes. Arthritis Rheum 3:585–594
Otero M, Gomez Reino JJ, Gualillo O (2003) Synergistic induction of nitric oxide synthase type II: in vitro effect of leptin and interferon-gamma in human chondrocytes and ATDC5 chondrogenic cells. Arthritis Rheum 2:404–409
Otero M, Lago R, Lago F, Reino JJ, Gualillo O (2005) Signalling pathway involved in nitric oxide synthase type II activation in chondrocytes: synergistic effect of leptin with interleukin-1. Arthritis Res Ther 3:R581–R591
Uesaka S, Nakayama Y, Yoshihara K, Ito H (2002) Significance of chondroitin sulfate isomers in the synovial fluid of osteoarthritis patients. J Orthop Sci 2:232–237
Blum WF, Englaro P, Hanitsch S et al (1997) Plasma leptin levels in healthy children and adolescents: dependence on body mass index, body fat mass, gender, pubertal stage, and testosterone. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 9:2904–2910
Hickey MS, Israel RG, Gardiner SN et al (1996) Gender differences in serum leptin levels in humans. Biochem Mol Med 1:1–6
Disclosures
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ku, J.H., Lee, C.K., Joo, B.S. et al. Correlation of synovial fluid leptin concentrations with the severity of osteoarthritis. Clin Rheumatol 28, 1431–1435 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-009-1242-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-009-1242-8