Osteoarthrosis is a polyetiological disease affecting 15 to 85 percent of people over 40 years of age. It makes as much as 50 percent of all articular pathology cases, so the interest of the scientific community in this problem keeps growing. One of the key patterns of osteoarthrosis progressing is the disorder of metabolic processes in articular connective tissue and, in particular, the disorder of collagen synthesis and disorganization of the spatial orientation of collagen molecules. Pyridinoline (PYD) is the integral indicator of this disorganization; it ensures the stability of collagen matrix due to the formation of pyridine crosslinks. Some research claim the predictive value of PYD determining in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other connective tissue pathologies in joints. Our study involved 42 patients aged 36-50 years with early signs of knee osteoarthrosis and 19 virtually healthy individuals without articular pathologies. All patients underwent standard radiography of their knee joints in the anterior (maximally extended position of the knee joint) and lateral (joint flexion up to 15º) projections in the supine position. Bone formation was assessed by osteocalcin (OC) content and bone resorption by CrossLaps and PYD levels while cartilage matrix destruction by cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and cartilage glycoprotein (YKL-40) serum concentrations with enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) method. Our findings showed that the disorders of bone formation (increased OC level) and bone resorption (increased CrossLaps and PYD levels) as well as the rearrangement of the cartilage matrix structure featured by the increased COMP and YKL-40 contents were specific for patients with early signs of knee osteoarthrosis lacking evident clinical and radiological manifestations of the disease. Interestingly, the significant (p<0.05) increase in pyridinoline serum concentration possibly resulted from the intermolecular disbanding in collagen polypeptide chains as a structure-forming component of the extracellular matrix in connective tissue. The sensitivity and specificity assessment of changes in PYD serum concentrations reneders the use of this indicator in the comprehensive evaluation of the condition of patients with early signs of knee osteoarthrosis aimed at increasing the effectiveness of diagnostic approaches to early osteoarthrosis detection and the designning pathogenetic therapy to be a promising trend for further research.
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