The OARSI histopathology initiative – recommendations for histological assessments of osteoarthritis in the guinea pig

Abstract

Objective This review focuses on the criteria for assessing osteoarthritis (OA) in the guinea pig at the macroscopic and microscopic levels, and recommends particular assessment criteria to assist standardization in the conduct and reporting of preclinical trails in guinea pig models of OA. Methods A review was conducted of all OA studies from 1958 until the present that utilized the guinea pig. The PubMed database was originally searched August 1, 2006 using the following search terms: guinea pig and osteoarthritis. We continued to check the database periodically throughout the process of preparing this chapter and the final search was conducted January 7, 2009. Additional studies were found in a review of abstracts from the OsteoArthritis Research Society International (OARSI) conferences, Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) conferences, and literature related to histology in other preclinical models of OA reviewed for relevant references. Studies that described or used systems for guinea pig joint scoring on a macroscopic, microscopic, or ultrastructural basis were included in the final comprehensive summary and review. General recommendations regarding methods of OA assessment in the guinea pig were derived on the basis of a comparison across studies and an inter-rater reliability assessment of the recommended scoring system. Results A histochemical-histological scoring system (based on one first introduced by H. Mankin) is recommended for semi-quantitative histological assessment of OA in the guinea pig, due to its already widespread adoption, ease of use, similarity to scoring systems used for OA in humans, its achievable high inter-rater reliability, and its demonstrated correlation with synovial fluid biomarker concentrations. Specific recommendations are also provided for histological scoring of synovitis and scoring of macroscopic lesions of OA. Conclusions As summarized herein, a wealth of tools exist to aid both in the semi-quantitative and quantitative assessment of OA in the guinea pig and provide a means of comprehensively characterizing the whole joint organ. In an ongoing effort at standardization, we recommend specific criteria for assessing the guinea pig model of OA as part of an OARSI initiative, termed herein the OARSI-HISTOgp recommendations.

Animal Models of Meniscal Injury in Post-Traumatic Arthritis

“…Osteophytes : Osteophytes should be graded macroscopically separately from other cartilage lesions, and microscopically may be graded from the same images as those used to assess cartilage degeneration [ 126 ]. Osteophytes may also be measured from their osteochondral base to the surface in frontal plane, and scored based on thickness [ 28 ].…”

Animal Model of Osteoarthritis

“…Genetically modified mice should ordinarily be studied at 9∼ 12 months when natural OA lesions start to appear in wild type mice (10). The anatomical differences between to humans and animals should also be considered.…”

“…It is therefore important that OA animal models exhibit pain as well as joint damage. Over the past decades, progress has been made in objectively assessing pain in animals, which can be employed as surrogates of human pain, discomfort, and fatigue (10). It is important to assess pain on multiple occasions because pathogenetic mechanism of pain may change over time in models.…”

Biomarkers of Joint Diseases: Current and Future Use

“…[8,46,47]. На-иболее перспективным направлением дальнейшего разви-тия признан поиск новых биохимических и генетических биомаркеров.…”