Genetic correlations between cartilage regeneration and degeneration reveal an inverse relationship.

Summary Objective The etiology of osteoarthritis (OA) is unknown, however, there appears to be a significant contribution from genetics. We have identified recombinant-inbred strains of mice derived from LG/J and SM/J strains that vary significantly in their ability to repair articular cartilage and susceptibility to post-traumatic OA due to their genetic composition. Here, we report cartilage repair phenotypes in the same strains of mice in which OA susceptibility was analyzed previously, and determine the genetic correlations between phenotypes. Design We used 12 recombinant-inbred strains, including the parental strains, to test three phenotypes: ear-wound healing (n=263), articular cartilage repair (n=131), and post-traumatic OA (n=53) induced by DMM. Genetic correlations between various traits were calculated as Pearson correlation coefficients of strain means. Results We found a significant positive correlation between ear-wound healing and cartilage regeneration (r=0.71;P=0.005). We observed a strong inverse correlation between cartilage regeneration and susceptibility to OA based on maximum (r=-0.54;P=0.036) and summed OARSI scores (r=-0.56;P=0.028). Synovitis was not significantly correlated with cartilage regeneration but was significantly positively correlated with maximum (r=0.63;P=0.014) and summed (r=0.70;P=0.005) scores. Ectopic calcification was correlated with cartilage regeneration (r=0.59;P=0.021). Conclusions Using recombinant-inbred strains, our study allows, for the first time, the measurement of genetic correlations of regeneration phenotypes with degeneration phenotypes that are characteristic of post-traumatic OA (cartilage degeneration, synovitis). We demonstrate that OA is positively correlated with synovitis and inversely correlated with the ability to repair cartilage. These results suggest a shift in the risk paradigm for OA from a focus on degeneration to regeneration.