Introduction
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a condition in which, during the progression of abnormal joint loading or injury, repeated mechanical stress leads to excessive degradation of the cartilage matrix, chondrocyte apoptosis, and aberrant subchondral bone remodeling. As OA advances, it can result in joint space narrowing, osteophyte formation, synovial inflammation, and joint dysfunction, clinically presenting as degenerative joint disease.
Disease models
Commonly used animal models induce joint mechanical instability through surgical procedures such as anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) and destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM), leading to progressive degeneration of articular cartilage.
The SMOC has long been dedicated to autoimmune disease research and has developed a variety of mouse models of osteoarthritis using surgical induction, spontaneous gene editing-based models, and other approaches, providing powerful tools for the efficacy evaluation and safety assessment of related drugs.
