The Role of Aging in the Development of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and a significant cause of pain and disability in older adults. Among the risk factors for OA, age is the most prominent. This review will discuss the relationship between aging and the development of OA, with a particular focus on mechanisms relevant to cartilage degeneration and the role of excessive levels of reactive oxygen species. Rather than just causing random oxidative damage, an increase in reactive oxygen species that leads to oxidative stress disrupts specific cell signaling pathways. This disruption in cell signaling affects the ability to maintain the cartilage extracellular matrix and eventually causes cell death. By understanding the specific cell signaling pathways that lead to OA through altered redox signaling, novel targets will be discovered that will be an advance over the current non-targeted anti-oxidant approach that has not been successful in treating chronic diseases of aging such as OA.