Expression of dishevelled-2 in cartilage of rheumatoid arthritis and its effect on cartilage destruction

Abstract

Objective: To study the expression of dishevelled-2 (DVL2) in rheumatoid arthritis cartilage and its effect on cartilage destruction. Methods: Cartilage DVL2 expression in rat models of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis(OA) and collagen-induced arthritis(CIA) were tested by Western blotting. DVL2 overexpressed lentivirus was transfected into the knee of CIA rats. Primary chondrocytes were extracted from RA patients by knee arthroplasty and transfected with DVL2 overexpressed lentivirus. Gene expression of related inflammation related cytokines was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) . Results: Compared with knee articular cartilage in OA patients and normal rats, DVL2 protein was highly expressed in knee cartilage of RA patients and CIA rats (P values 0.041 and 0.032, respectively). DVL2 did not significantly affect the destruction of knee cartilage in CIA rats (P=0.885). DVL2 overexpression in chondrocytes enhanced gene expression of cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2, MMP-3, and MMP-9, which could be more pronounced when tumor necrosis factor alpha was added. Conclusions: DVL2 is highly expressed in RA articular cartilage and promotes the expression of inflammatory cytokines and MMP gene in chondrocytes by activating Wnt/β-catenin pathway, which involves in the destruction of articular cartilage in RA.