الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis causing a huge burden of morbidity and disability particularly in the elderly. Traditionally OA has been considered a disease of articular cartilage, but the disease is manifest in all joint structures; cartilage, subchondral bone,synovium, capsule and ligaments.
OA has been always classified as non-inflammatory arthritis; yet there is increasing evidence for inflammation occurring with cytokine and metalloproteinase release into the joint. Therefore the term degenerative joint disease is no longer appropriate when referring to OA.
OA was recognized as a non inflammatory arthropathy. However, recent studies have demonstrated that an inflammatory process plays a role in the pathogenesis of OA. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are implicated as potential mediators in the disease. Recently, the involvement of genetic factors has been extensively documented as well.
Osteoarthritis may be classified as primary or secondary according to its cause or major predisposing factor. Primary osteoarthritis is the most common type and has no identifiable etiology. Major factors that affect the degree of risk for developing osteoarthritis include age, gender, joint location, obesity, genetic predisposition, joint malalignment and trauma. Typical clinical symptoms are pain and stiffness, particularly after prolonged activity.
Molecular markers are molecules, or fragments of connective tissue matrices which are released into biological fluids during tissue biosynthesis and turnover and which can be measured by immunoassays. The type II collagen molecule has been investigated as a potential source of biomarkers in osteoarthritis. This is because type II collagen is the most abundant protein component of cartilage and it is relatively specific for hyaline cartilage. Furthermore, damage to the type II collagen meshwork is a critical event in the pathology-of-osteoarthritis.
The CTX-II epitope is a part of the non-helical carboxyterminal crosslinked telopeptide and consists of six amino-acids attached to a cross-link (X). It is released during the degradation of type II collagen. It is mainly concentrated in calcified articular cartilage at the junction with sub-chondral bone.