Blood transcriptional signatures for disease progression in a rat model of osteoarthritis

Biomarkers of osteoarthritis (OA) that can accurately diagnose the disease at the earliest stage would significantly support efforts to develop treatments for prevention and early intervention. The different stages of disease progression are described by the complex pattern of transcriptional regulations. The dynamics in pattern alterations were monitored in each individual animal during the time-course of OA progression. Blood samples were collected from a tail vein of individual male Wistar rats with monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) induced OA (0, 2, 14, 21, 28 days after the treatment). MIA-treated animals were compared to intact controls. Six replicate samples were analyzed per each experimental group. We used whole-genome microarrays (Affymetrix Rat Gene 2.0 ST) to identify OA-related molecular signatures in the blood.