Gut microbiota and osteoarthritis management: An expert consensus of the European society for clinical and economic aspects of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal diseases (ESCEO)

Biver E, Berenbaum F, Valdes AM, Araujo de Carvalho I, Bindels LB, Brandi ML, Calder PC, Castronovo V, Cavalier E, Cherubini A, Cooper C, Dennison E, Franceschi C, Fuggle N, Laslop A, Miossec P, Thomas T, Tuzun S, Veronese N, Vlaskovska M, Reginster JY, Rizzoli R · Ageing Research Reviews

An expert consensus on the gut microbiota in osteoarthritis. It sets out the metabolic-endotoxaemia hypothesis linking obesity, gut permeability and low-grade joint inflammation, counts one human trial — a 537-patient probiotic study — among the interventions, and concludes that the evidence in humans is at the association and mechanism stage rather than the intervention stage, calling for randomised trials of prebiotics, probiotics and fibre.

Population

The gut-microbiota-and-osteoarthritis literature, appraised by an ESCEO expert working group

Intervention

Microbiota-targeted approaches — prebiotics, probiotics, diet

Comparator

Not applicable

Limitations

Expert consensus, not a systematic review. One author declares consultancies with Zoe Global, CPKelco and Heel; the others declare none relevant, and the meeting was funded by ESCEO.