Immune and Repair Responses in Joint Tissues and Lymph Nodes after Knee Arthroplasty Surgery in Mice

The aim of this study was to better understand the resolution of inflammation and fibrosis in the soft tissue of the knee joint and the draining iliac lymph nodes (LNs) after surgery in a mouse tibial implant model. To do this, we collected the joint tissues from operated mice at 5 different timepoints (3, 7, 14, 21, and 35 days), plus joint tissue from the contralateral, non-operated limb at 35 days as a negative control. We also collected iliac LNs at days 7 and 14 post implantation surgery from the operated and contralateral sides; as controls we used LNs from non-operated mice. Transcriptomic analysis of the joint soft tissues revealed molecular pathways active during postoperative tissue repair. Overall design: Transcriptomic analysis to understand molecular pathways active during postoperative tissue repair and in draining lymph nodes.