Identification of synovial fibroblasts subsets associated with pain and progression of knee osteoarthritis by single cell sequencing

Abstract

Purpose: Joint pain in osteoarthritis (OA) patients is a leading cause of disability and shortening of adult working life. Despite the significant impact of pain on OA patient quality of life, the effective alleviation of pain or modification of disease activity remains elusive. Since inflammation of the synovial membrane (synovitis) was shown to be strongly associated with pain severity in patients with knee OA in a multi-centre study the aim of this study was to determine in knee OA patients whether synovial tissue from areas associated with pain exhibited different synovial fibroblast pathotypes, compared to synovial tissue from sites not associated with pain, and furthermore to compare differences associated with progression of OA.