Study of Morpho-Molecular Mechanisms and Tissue Engineering involved in the Musculoskeletal Disorders

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA), one of the most commonly occurring musculoskeletal conditions, is a nearly universal, slowly progressive degenerative condition of articular cartilage, affecting of men and women as they age. Articular cartilage is characterized by its extreme fragility, due to the fact that it is neither innervated nor vascularized, so once injured it is not able to repair and it undergoes the degenerative process. Although a lot is known about this complex and multifactorial disease, the only existing therapy consists in the attenuation of its symptoms but no resolutory therapy is available. Considering numerous aspects and multifactorial nature of the OA disease, the aim of this research was to improve the knowledge of the morpho-molecular mechanisms occurring in the osteoarthritic and normal cartilage and to find the possible therapeutic solutions for this complicated disease. The present study focused on the most important aspects of OA. Primarily, we took into account its principal risk factor and triggering element represented by aging process, to pass subsequently to investigate about its main cause given by the inflammatory process and altered lubricating ability of the cartilage tissue, to end with the investigation of the solution to the problem given by the tissue engineering approach based on adipose tissue-derived MSCs. In conclusion, the present research highlights some important aspects concerning molecular alterations of articular cartilage tissue occurring in the pathological conditions and provides new insights for the treatments aimed to prevent, attenuate or solve the osteoarthritic process, as well as to restore the lost cartilage tissue.