Macrophage depletion alleviates pain-related behaviors in osteoarthritic mice

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of macrophage depletion on pain-like behaviors, joint damage, and DRG molecular changes in both male and female mice with osteoarthritis. Overall design: Systemic macrophage depletion was achieved using the macrophage Fas-Induced apoptosis (MaFIA) strain of mice and giving i.p. injections of AP20187 or vehicle control once per day for five consecutive days to male mice in which osteoarthritis was induced by destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) surgery, 8 weeks after the surgery, or to male naïve mice that were age-matched. L3-L5 dorsal root ganglia were collected from the same side as the knee surgery, pooled, and RNA was extracted for bulk RNAseq.