Genetic contribution to radiographic severity in osteoarthritis of the knee

Abstract

Objective: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) has a significant genetic component. The authors have assessed the role of three variants reported to influence risk of knee OA with p<5×10-8 in determining patellofemoral and tibiofemoral Kellgren Lawrence (K/L) grade in knee OA cases.

Methods: 3474 knee OA cases with sky-line and weight-bearing antero-posterior x-rays of the knee were selected based on the presentation of K/L grade ≥2 at either the tibiofemoral or patellofemoral compartments for one or both knees. Patients belonging to three UK cohorts, were genotyped for rs143383, rs4730250 and rs11842874 mapping to the GDF5, COG5 and MCF2L genes, respectively. The association between tibiofemoral K/L grade and patellofemoral K/L grade was assessed after adjusting for age, gender and body mass index.

Results: No significant association was found between the rs4730250 and radiographic severity. The rs11842874 mapping to MCF2L was found to be nominally significantly associated with patellofemoral K/L grade as a quantitative trait (p=0.027) but not as a binary trait. The GDF5 single nucleotide polymorphism rs143383 was associated with tibiofemoral K/L grade (β=0.05 (95% CI 0.02 to 0.08) p=0.0011).

Conclusions: Our data indicate that within individuals affected by radiographic knee OA, OAGDF5 has a modest but significant effect on radiographic severity after adjustment for the major risk factors.

Figure 1

Association between knee K/L grade and gene variants: (A) mean tibiofemoral (TF) K/L grade ±SE for each GDF5 rs143388 genotype adjusted for cohort, age, sex and BMI. (B) mean patellofemoral (PF) K/L grade ±SE or each MCF2L rs11842874 genotype adjusted for cohort, age, sex and body mass index. (C) Forest plot for association between TF K/L and rs143388 for each study cohort, and fixed-effects meta-analysis summary statistics. Only patients with TF K/L ≥2 are included. (D) Forest plot for association between PF K/L and rs11842874 for each study cohort and fixed-effects meta-analysis summary statistics. Only patients with PF K/L ≥2 are included. (E) Forest plot for association between TF K/L=2 cases versus TF K/L≥3 and rs143388 for each study cohort, and fixed-effects meta-analysis summary statistics. (F) Forest plot for association between PF K/L=2 cases versus PF K/L≥3 and rs11842874 for each study cohort, and fixed-effects meta-analysis summary statistics. All results are adjusted for age, sex and body mass index.