Rodent models of knee osteoarthritis for pain research

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease and a leading cause of disability worldwide. Pain is the main symptom, yet no current treatment can halt disease progression or effectively provide symptomatic relief. Numerous animal models have been described for studying OA and some for the associated OA pain. This review aims to update on current models used for studying OA pain, focusing on mice and rats. These models include surgical, chemical, mechanical, and spontaneous OA models. The impact of sex and age will also be addressed in the context of OA modelling. Although no single animal model has been shown ideal for studying OA pain, increased efforts to phenotype OA will likely impact the choice of models for pre-clinical and basic research studies.