For the first time, arthritis cartilage tissue is classified at a single cell resolution level.

Cartilage is a physiologically unrepairable tissue that carries load and cushioning on the surface of the joint, which contains cartilage cells.
studies have found that the morphology changes in cartilage cells, such as cell fertilization and matrix calcification, can lead to cartilage degeneration of osteoarthritis.
recently, the international authoritative journal "Rheumatology Yearbook" published a breakthrough study: Beijing University School of Life Sciences, Tang Fuyu Group and Chinese Civil Liberation Army General Hospital Wang Yan task force, for the first time in a single cell resolution level of the arthritis cartilage tissue for a comprehensive classification, found three new cell subtypes and their molecular characteristics, and defined the incidence of osteoarthritis beneficial and adverse subtypes.
the results of this research is a major step towards revealing the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis, early clinical diagnosis and effective treatment.
knee cells can also regulate circadian rhythms previously found in the proliferation of cartilage cells, fibrous cartilage cells, pre-fat cartilage cells and fat cartilage cells, such as 4 kinds of cartilage cells, lack of effective molecular characteristics to "identify" it.
therefore, to understand the role of different cartilage cells in the cartilage degeneration process of osteoarthritis, it is particularly important to reclassify cartilage cells at the molecular biology level.
According to one of the first authors of the research paper, Wang Yan's team Of Zhai Quanbo, in order to obtain a single cartilage cell, they have different conditions of osteoarthritis patients after sampling the cartilage tissue, through the role of collagen to disperse the cells, and then use single-cell transcription sequencing technology to obtain the gene expression characteristics of each cell, similar characteristics of the cell into one category, so as to separate 7 cell subtypes.
-effect cartilage cells, regulatory cartilage cells and steady-state cartilage cells are the three newly discovered types of cartilage cells and have different biological functions.
"by looking for genes that are subtype dispecifically expressive, i.e. to determine the molecular characteristics of cells, they can be roughly determined." "
" co-author of the paper, Zheng Yuxuan, a doctoral student at TangFul Labs, told Science and Technology Daily, "For example, some genes are expressed only in certain cell subtypes, and not in other subtypes, then these genes are the specific expression of such cells."
" By analyzing the gene function database, the team found that the high-expression genes of effect cartilage cells were mostly related to metabolism, which meant that the metabolic capacity of the cell subtypes was stronger, while the regulation of cartilage cells was related to the regulation of the signaling pathway, while the function of another type of stable cartilage cells surprised the research team.
database results show that the molecular markers of stable cartilage cells contain many genes associated with cell metabolism and developmental processes, and that these cells also highly express circadian rhythm genes.
for human circadian rhythms, we can think of more such as sleep and rest-related things, who can expect that the knee joint, the part of the movement, there are cells and circadian rhythms associated with? Zheng Yuxuan said, "This also suggests that the occurrence of osteoarthritis may have a relationship with the disorder of the biological clock."
"genes are good or harmful? How did they link the seven cell subtypes to the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis after they had completed their respective formation classification work? 336 special genes serve as "bridges" between the two.
, according to Zhai Quanbo, the human body has more than 20,000 known genes, they created a new indicator to reflect the disease, by building the relationship between gene expression and disease indicators, found that 199 gene expression with the increase of the indicator and decline, 137 are the opposite, so as to screen out the condition of the favorable and adverse special genes.
interesting, the favorable and negative genes are identified in seven cell subtypes.
in each subtype, high levels of expression are either beneficial or negative.
this means that there is some correlation between the type of cell subtype and the onset of osteoarthritis.
corresponding, cells in the former condition are referred to as "beneficial cells" and the latter are "harmful cells".
the three new cell subtypes discovered in the experiment are beneficial cells, and the other four are harmful cells.
what role can this result play in clinical treatment? Zheng Yuxuan in an interview with Science and Technology Daily, said that in the future may consider some means to promote the production of beneficial cells, inhibit the development of harmful cells, so as to effectively prevent and treat osteoarthritis.
, by detecting cell-related secretions in the body's blood levels, or by providing an important reference for early diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
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