• Diana Amorim, Diana Fonseca-Rodrigues, Ana David-Pereira, Octávia Costa, Antónia Palhares Lima, Rosete Nogueira, Rute Cruz, Ana Sofia Martins, Liliana Sousa, Francisco Oliveira, Hélder Pereira, Rogério Pirraco, Antti Pertovaara, Armando Almeida, and Filipa Pinto-Ribeiro.
• Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
• Pain. 2023 Nov 1; 164 (11): 247724902477-2490.

AbstractOsteoarthritis (OA), the most common joint disorder worldwide, is characterized by progressive degeneration of articular and periarticular structures, leading to physical and emotional impairments that greatly affect the quality of life of patients. Unfortunately, no therapy has been able to halt the progression of the disease. Owing to the complexity of OA, most animal models are only able to mimic a specific stage or feature of the human disorder. In this work, we demonstrate the intraarticular injection of kaolin or carrageenan leads to the progressive degeneration of the rat's knee joint, accompanied by mechanical hyperalgesia and allodynia, gait impairments (reduced contact area of the affected limb), and radiological and histopathological findings concomitant with the development of human grade 4 OA. In addition, animals also display emotional impairments 4 weeks after induction, namely, anxious and depressive-like behaviour, important and common comorbidities of human OA patients. Overall, prolonging kaolin or carrageenan-induced monoarthritis mimics several important physical and psychological features of human OA in both male and female rodents and could be further applied in long-term studies of OA-associated chronic pain.Copyright © 2023 International Association for the Study of Pain.

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