Heterogeneity in biological features of osteoarthritic and non-osteoarthritic cartilage according to the joint location: a comparative study of knee versus hand cartilage from cadavers

Purpose: The search for endotypes in osteoarthritis (OA) is the basis of many studies with the aim of discovering disease-specific signatures. Nevertheless, the anatomical origin of the tissues used for these studies is always the knee. We wondered whether the origin of the tissue could have an influence on such signatures. For this purpose, we compared the expressions of different markers involved in the pathophysiology of OA in order to determine if their expression varied according to the localization (knee, proximal interphalangeal (PIP), metacarpophalangeal (MCP)) in the presence or not of an inflammatory environment.