Expression And Significance Of MMP-3,MMP-13 And IL-17 In The Synovium Of OA

Background and ObjectiveOsteoarthritis is a chronic, progressive, degenerative joint disease based on the principle of articular cartilage degeneration and a frequent disease in orthopedics. OA can severely affect function of joint movement and quality of life, bring the family and the society heavy burden in the last. Accompany with the increment of people's expectant life and the aging populations, The disease incidence is rising year by year and onset ages gradually younger. Therapy of OA is becoming a medical and social problem. At present the etiology and pathogenesis of OA has not yet fully understood, the relationship between metalloproteinases,cytokines and OA is one of the hot research in recent years. On the basis, we choose matrix metalloproteinases-3 (MMP-3), matrix metalloproteinases-13 (MMP-13) and Interleukin-17(IL-17), use immunohistochemical techniques to study their expression in synovium of osteoarthritis'different stages and the correlation among them to explore the pathogenesis of OA from matrix metalloproteinase and cytokines two aspects, provide theoretical and laboratory basis for osteoarthritis's clinical treatment.Material and methodsAll 50 knee joint cases are choosen in the orthopedic department of the first affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou University from May 2010 to October 2010. The OA patients (35 cases) are divided into two groups according to the knee Ahlback X-ray classification method:grade 1 and 2 are Group 2(mild lesions group),15 cases 15 knees; grade 3 above are Group 3(serious lesions group),20 cases 20 knees; Non-OA are Group3 (control group),15 cases 15 knees,11 cases of meniscal injury,4 cases of cruciate ligament damage. The three synovium groups are collected in the arthroscopy or total knee replacement operation. The collected synovium are washed twice with saline in an hour after operation, cut into about the size of 0.5 cm X 0.5 cm X 0.5 cm pieces, fixed by 10% paraformaldehyde, then paraffin embedded and 4-5μm slice. Three groups each randomly select a synovium to hemotoxylin and eosin staining, observe synovial cells histological appearance in the light-microscopy. The rest slices were performed immunohistochemical SP method to reveal the expression of MMP-3,MMP-13 and IL-17 in the OA group and control group, observe the dyeing slices in the microscope. Each group immunohistochemical results of integral optical density are analysed by Biosens Digital Imaging System vl.6. Statistical data is processed with SPSS16.0 statistical analysis software:quantitative data is signed as mean±standard deviation, the mean differences between two groups compared with T-test; the mean difference among three groups use one-way ANOVA LSD -t test to analyze; the IOD value is compared between IL-17 and MMP-3,MMP-13 to get the correlation coefficient. The difference was identified significant statistically by P< 0.05Results1. The expression of MMP-3,MMP-13 and IL-17 in the synovial cell, lymphocytes, Monocyte of seriously lesions group is strongly positive, cytoplasm dark brownish-yellow. The expression in mild lesions group is weakly positive, cytoplasm shallow brownish-yellow. The expressions in control group only a few positive.2. The IOD value of MMP-3,MMP-13 and IL-17 proteins expressed in OA group is much higher than the IOD value in control group(p<0.01); The IOD value in serious lesions group is also higher than the mild lesions group(p<0.01). In OA group, Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient between IL-17 and MMP-3 is 0.824(r=0.824, P＜0.01), Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient between IL-17 and MMP-13 is 0.905(r=0.905, P＜0.01), the difference are statistically significant (P＜0.05).Conclusion1. With the extension of OA course and symptoms'aggravation, articular cartilage degenerate and synovium fibrosis degree are obviouser, the expression of MMP-3,MMP-13,IL-17 increase, they both have a certain positive correlation. 2. In the process of osteoarthritis'physiology and pathology, IL-17 raise the expression of MMP - 3,MMP - 13,breaks the balance of MMPs/TIMPs to lead to articular cartilage matrix degenerate, consequently, OA happened.