Association of adipokines with severity of knee osteoarthritis assessed clinically and on magnetic resonance imaging

Timothy Kit Yeong Chong; Jin-Rong Tan; Cheryl Ann Ma; Steven Bak Siew Wong; Ying-Ying Leung

doi:10.1016/j.ocarto.2023.100405

Association of adipokines with severity of knee osteoarthritis assessed clinically and on magnetic resonance imaging

Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2023 Aug 12;5(4):100405. doi: 10.1016/j.ocarto.2023.100405. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Timothy Kit Yeong Chong¹, Jin-Rong Tan², Cheryl Ann Ma^{1

3}, Steven Bak Siew Wong^{3

4}, Ying-Ying Leung^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
² Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
³ Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
⁴ Department of Radiology, SengKang General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the association between the adipokines: Leptin, Adiponectin, Resistin, and high sensitive-C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) with clinical, radiographical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) severity.

Design: We performed a cross-sectional study in participants with earlier knee OA. Demographics, clinical (WOMAC), radiographical and MRI (BLOKS scoring) severity of knee OA were assessed. Serum leptin, adiponectin, resistin and hs-CRP were measured. Association of adipokines and hs-CRP with clinical, radiographic and MRI severity outcomes were evaluated using regression models with adjustment with age, sex, and body mass index (BMI).

Results: 137 participants with earlier knee OA (82% women, mean ± SD age: 55.5 ± 7.8 years) were included. Participants had moderate knee OA symptoms, mean WOMAC pain and function were 30.6 ± 18.0, and 31.7 ± 19.8 respectively. Mean BMI was 27.0 ± 5.9 kg/m². After adjustment with age, sex and BMI, serum leptin was positively associated with osteophyte size, cartilage integrity, infrapatellar synovitis and effusion. While hs-CRP was associated with meniscus extrusion and adiponectin was associated with WOMAC pain and function.

Conclusion: Serum adipokines, particularly leptin was associated with severity of various structural defects of the knee joint on MRI beyond age, sex and BMI in earlier knee OA.

Keywords: Adipokines; Adiponectin; Cross sectional; Leptin; Magnetic resonance imaging; Observational study; Osteoarthritis.