Myostatin And Cxcl11 Promote Dorsal Root Ganglia Macrophages To Maintain Osteoarthritis Pain

Purpose: Pain is a major debilitating symptom of knee osteoarthritis (OA). The extent of joint damage in OA does not correlate well with the severity of pain. In a mouse model of OA, inflammatory, M1-like, macrophages infiltrate dorsal root ganglia (DRG) that contain the somas of neurons innervating the damaged knee joint. These macrophages maintain pain independent of the lesions in the knee joint. Here we aimed at deciphering what drives the attraction and M1-like skewing of these nervous tissue macrophages in OA.