Cellular senescence in aging and osteoarthritis

Toh WS, Brittberg M, Farr J, Foldager CB, Gomoll AH, Hui JH, Richardson JB, Roberts S, Spector M · Acta Orthop

Chondrocyte telomere length runs from about 12 kbp in donors under 20 to 9 to 11 kbp in donors over 55; chondrocyte yields from cartilage are twofold lower in donors over 40, and proliferation and matrix synthesis decline after 20. Oxidative stress accelerates telomere attrition and senescence in cultured chondrocytes. The review states that the role of telomere shortening in osteoarthritis is less clear than in ageing: Harbo 2012 found ultra-short telomeres tracking lesion proximity and severity, while Rose 2012, comparing osteoarthritic and normal autopsy cartilage, found more DNA damage but no evidence of critical telomere shortening. In an autologous adipose stem-cell series of 49 patients, age over 60 was the main predictor of clinical failure.

Population

Narrative review of cellular senescence in ageing cartilage and its consequences for cartilage repair

Intervention

n/a

Comparator

n/a

Limitations

Narrative review; no competing interests declared and no funding statement in the text. It carries the one directly contradicting human finding on telomeres in osteoarthritis (Rose 2012), which the other reviews in this set do not.