Abstract
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative condition of joints, causing pain and swelling, and can be caused or worsened by trauma and obesity. The objectives of this study were to determine whether pain behaviour and progression of OA were increased in rats with trauma-induced OA fed dietary saturated fatty acids (SFA). Male Wistar rats were fed either a corn starch diet (C) or high-carbohydrate high-fat diet (H) with either 20% beef tallow or SFA (lauric (HLA), myristic (HMA), palmitic (HPA) or stearic (HSA) acids) for 16 weeks prior to and 8 weeks after excision of the medial meniscus of right knee joint to initiate OA when pain behaviour, glial activity, progression of knee OA, inflammatory mediators and signs of metabolic syndrome were assessed. Rats fed beef tallow, palmitic or stearic acids showed increased pain symptoms characterised by decreased hind paw/limb withdrawal thresholds and grip strengths and increased spinal astrogliosis and microgliosis compared to rats fed lauric or myristic acids. However, the severity of OA joint damage was unchanged by these dietary manipulations. We conclude that pain symptoms of trauma-induced OA in rats worsen with increased dietary beef tallow or palmitic or stearic acids, but improve with lauric or myristic acids, despite unchanged OA cartilage damage.
Highlights
Trauma is an important cause of osteoarthritis (OA), a complex multifactorial disease process leading to degeneration of joints [1]
We showed that saturated fatty acids (SFA) such as palmitic or stearic acids as long-chain
As increased consumption of long-chain SFA is a relevant risk factor for both metabolic syndrome and OA, we have examined the role of the different dietary SFA in the development of pain-related behaviour in trauma-induced OA
Summary
Trauma is an important cause of osteoarthritis (OA), a complex multifactorial disease process leading to degeneration of joints [1]. In the 2017/2018 Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health. 12% of females and 6.8% of males (2.2 million Australians) had arthritis with an economic impact of $3.5 billion annually [2]. The characteristic features of OA include degradation of the cartilage and sclerosis of subchondral bone, with increased synovial inflammation playing a major role in the degenerative bone disease [1,3,4]. The major symptom of OA is pain, which eventually leads to disability with increasing disease progression [6]. These include activation of mechano-transducers and acid-sensing ion channels on Nutrients 2020, 12, 509; doi:10.3390/nu12020509 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients
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