Towards a better understanding of the pathogenesis of knee and hip osteoarthritis

With the growing prevalence of risk factors for Osteoarthritis (OA) such as aging and obesity, the burden of OA is predicted to increase. Currently, there are no approved disease modifying drugs and total joint replacement is performed for symptomatic end-stage OA. Therefore, there is an unmet need for effective prevention and therapeutic approaches to reduce the disease burden. The main purpose of my thesis is to better understand the impact of OA on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the role of metabolic factors and sex steroids in severe symptomatic knee and hip OA, and the role of meniscal pathology in knee OA.