RNA-sequencing analysis of hand cartilage tissue from osteoarthritis patients with/without common polymorphic variants in ALDH1A2 gene

Polymorphic variants (rs3204689 and rs4238326) in aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A2 (ALDH1A2) are associated with severe hand OA. Trapezium tissue from patients with severe base of thumb OA was collected at the time of surgery. To investigate the transcriptional effects of the ALDH1A2 variants, we compared articular cartilage samples from patients homozygous for low-risk and high-risk ALDH1A2 alleles. We collected trapezium samples from 19 hand osteoarthritis patients for bulk RNA-sequencing analysis. 12 patients were homozygous for the high risk variants (rs3204689 and rs4238326; genotype recorded as “HO”) and 7 were homozygous for low-risk variants (genotype recorded as “WT”).