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Review
. 2023 Oct 26:11:1269724.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1269724. eCollection 2023.

Macrophage polarization in osteoarthritis progression: a promising therapeutic target

Yanlei Zhang  1 , Quanbo Ji  2
Affiliations
Review

Macrophage polarization in osteoarthritis progression: a promising therapeutic target

Yanlei Zhang et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the leading causes of pain and disability in the elderly. Synovitis, cartilage destruction and osteophyte formation histologically manifest OA. Unfortunately, there is currently no effective therapy to delay its progression and the underlying mechanisms of OA require further exploration. Macrophage is a main cellular component of joint synovium. It is highly plastic and can be stimulated to polarize to different phenotypes, namely, the pro-inflammatory phenotype (M1) and the anti-inflammatory/tissue-repairing phenotype (M2). Ample evidence has demonstrated the vital roles of macrophages in the progression of OA. Imbalanced M1/M2 ratio is significantly related to OA severity indicating macrophage polarization might be a promising therapeutic target for OA. In this review, we summarized the involvements of polarized macrophages in synovitis, cartilage degradation, osteophyte formation and OA-related chronic pain. Promising therapies targeting macrophage polarization including the intra-articular cell/derivates-based therapy and the alternative non-invasive intervention such as photobiomodulation therapy were reviewed as well.

Keywords: cell therapy; macrophage polarization; osteoarthritis; synovitis; tissue repairing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic overview of macrophage polarization involved in osteoarthritis progression and potential treatments. (A) Roles of M1 and M2 macrophages in OA and promising macrophage polarization-targeted therapeutics. (B) Involvements of polarized macrophages in synovitis, cartilage degeneration, osteophyte formation and OA pain.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was approved by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81902250, 82272558, and 82072464). Beijing Natural Science Foundation, 7212093 (grant number), QJ (Funder).

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