T-cell receptor repertoire and HLA in osteoarthritis: A systematic literature review

The aim of this systematic literature review was to provide a comprehensive overview of T-Cell Receptor (TCR) mediated immunity research in osteoarthritis (OA).

The search was conducted in April 2024 on PubMed and Embase, following PRISMA 2020. Search was primarily based on MeSH terms, free-text was used when required. Articles on TCR, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and T-cell antigens (TAG) in human and animal research were included. OA metadata, methods and analysis were collected for each selected article.

Out of 405 screened records, 17 were selected. All articles were about human research. The most common topic was human leukocyte antigen (HLA), in 65% (N=11) of the collected articles; TCR repertoire was a topic in 41% (N=7) of the articles, while no articles on TAG were found. Articles on HLA genetics investigated hand, knee and hip OA and provided basic patient data. Articles investigating TCR were limited to knee OA, had low numbers of OA patients (4 ± 2, mean ± SD), lacked description of OA patients, used low throughput technology, and used OA as a control disease in 5 of 7 articles. Except for some HLA associations with OA and the description of a biased TCR repertoire in affected knee joints, these articles did not provide significant results for assessing the role of T cells in OA.

This analysis highlights the paucity of usable data in the literature and calls for high-throughput analysis of the TCR repertoire to better define the role of T cells in the pathophysiology of OA.