Background/Purpose:

The prevalence of radiographic and symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) is higher in women, but in animal study, male mice were more frequently used to explore pathogenesis or drug efficacy. In this study we examined whether gender dimorphism affects cartilage degeneration and pain accompanied by OA in knee joints and the activity of transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1) antagonist on joint pain using destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM)-induced OA mouse model.

Methods:

DMM or sham surgery was performed on the right knee of 8-10 week old male and female C57BL/6 mice. Von Frey hair, incapacitance, rotarod, and hot plate tests were conducted to measure the degree of mechanical allodynia, sensorimotor skills, and thermal hyperalgesia in the hind paw, respectively. Degeneration of articular cartilage was assessed by safranin O staining and scored using the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) scoring system.

Results: Male mice only showed that at the late stage post DMM surgery, paw withdrawal threshold in von Frey test and response time in hot plate test were significantly decreased relative to the sham control group. However, the pain behavior analysis using incapacitance and rotarod tests revealed no significant difference between female and male DMM group. Histology and OARSI scoring analysis showed that significant difference was not observed in male and female DMM groups. In addition, a TRPV1 antagonist, capsazepin (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg) significantly reduced DMM-induced pain in male mice but did not in female mice.

Conclusion:

These results suggest that DMM-induced pain behaviors and the effects of pain drugs, including TRPV1 antagonist, may be gender-dependent.

« Back to 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/evaluation-of-cartilage-degeneration-and-osteoarthritis-pain-on-female-and-male-mouse-model-of-osteoarthritis/