Arthroplasty is a surgical procedure to restore the function of the joint of patient suffering from knee osteoarthritis. However, postoperative functional deficits are reported even after a rehabilitation program. In order to determine the origin of functional deficits of patient suffering from knee osteoarthritis and total knee arthroplasty, we developed a rodent model including a chemicallyinduced-osteoarthritis and designed a knee prosthesis (Ti6Al4V/PEEK) biomechanically and anatomically adapted to rat knee joint. Dynamic Weight-Bearing, gait kinematics, H-reflex from vastus medialis muscle and activities from metabosensitive III and IV afferent fibers in femoral nerve were assessed at 1 and 3 months post-surgery. Results indicate that knee osteoarthritis altered considerably the responses of afferent fibers to their known activators (i.e., lactic acid and potassium chloride) and consequently their ability to modulate the spinal sensorimotor loop, although, paradoxically, motor deficits seemed relatively light. On the contrary, results indicate that, after the total knee arthroplasty, the afferent responses and the sensorimotor function were slightly altered but that motor deficits were more severe. We conclude that neural changes attested by the recovery of the metabosensitive afferent activity and the sensorimotor loop were induced when a total knee replacement was performed and that these changes may disrupt or delay the locomotor recovery. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative joint disease, characterized by a failure of cartilage self-repair. It originates from a stress occurring on the synovial joint tissues including joint cartilage, subchondral bone, ligaments, menisci, periarticular muscles, peripheral nerves or synovium and leads to inflammatory reaction 1-3. Mainly, OA involves hands and weight bearing joints, especially the knee which appears to be the most affected 4. The main symptoms of knee OA are pain and motor limitations related to joint deformity and weakness of surrounding muscles 1,5,6. When these symptoms become unsustainable, patients often resort to total knee arthroplasty (TKA) also called total knee replacement which is the gold standard treatment for end-stage knee OA.