Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Osteoarthritis

Epigenetics of articular cartilage in knee and hip OA

Epigenetic regulation is a vital driver of the aetiology of human disease, with research breakthroughs now occurring on a regular basis. Several studies investigating CpG methylation of cartilage DNA from patients with osteoarthritis are generating exciting insight into this common but complex disease.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. arcOGEN Consortium & arcOGEN Collaborators. Identification of new susceptibility loci for osteoarthritis (arcOGEN): a genome-wide association study. Lancet 380, 815–823 (2012).

  2. Xu, Y. et al. Identification of the pathogenic pathways in osteoarthritic hip cartilage: commonality and discord between hip and knee OA. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 20, 1029–1038 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Den Hollander, W. et al. Knee and hip articular cartilage have distinct epigenomic landscapes: implications for future cartilage regeneration approaches. Ann. Rheum. Dis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-205980.

  4. Barter, M. J., Bui, C. & Young, D. A. Epigenetic mechanisms in cartilage and osteoarthritis: DNA methylation, histone modifications and microRNAs. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 20, 339–349 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Fernández-Tajes, J. et al. Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of articular chondrocytes reveals a cluster of osteoarthritic patients. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 73, 668–677 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rushton, M. D. et al. Characterization of the cartilage DNA methylome in knee and hip osteoarthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 66, 2450–2460 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Jeffries, M. A. et al. Genome-wide DNA methylation study identifies significant epigenomic changes in osteoarthritic cartilage. Arthritis Rheumatol. 66, 2804–2815 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Moazedi-Fuerst, F. C. et al. Epigenetic differences in human cartilage between mild and severe OA. J. Orthop. Res. 32, 1636–1645 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Liu-Bryan, R. & Terkeltaub, R. Emerging regulators of the inflammatory process in osteoarthritis. Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2014.162.

  10. Reynard, L. N., Bui, C., Syddall, C. M. & Loughlin, J. CpG methylation regulates allelic expression of GDF5 by modulating binding of SP1 and SP3 repressor proteins to the osteoarthritis susceptibility SNP rs143383. Hum. Genet. 133, 1059–1073 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge research support from Arthritis Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), the Dr William Harker Foundation, the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre and the European Union 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 305815 (D-BOARD). The authors are members of the MRC–Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Loughlin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Loughlin, J., Reynard, L. Epigenetics of articular cartilage in knee and hip OA. Nat Rev Rheumatol 11, 6–7 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2014.189

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2014.189

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing