Browsing by Author "Paul, Heather A"

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    Relationship between inflammation, the gut microbiota, and metabolic osteoarthritis development: studies in a rat model
    (2016) Herzog, Walter; Collins, Kelsey H; Paul, Heather A; Reimer, Raylene A; Seerattan, Ruth A; Hart, David A
    Western-type diets, high in fat and sugars, lead to obesity. Obesity in turn is associated with chronic inflammation, and thought to be a risk factor for the onset and increased rate of progression of metabolic osteoarthritis (OA) in joints. Emerging evidence suggests that intrinsic inflammatory mediators secreted by body fat, or adipose tissue, including cytokines, adipokines, and advanced glycation end products, may be sufficient to lead to onset and progression of OA. It appears that these obesity-associated, intrinsic inflammatory factors define a metabolic subtype of osteoarthritis. Characterizing the factors that comprise this unhealthy metabolic phenotype is critical to understanding the influence of obesity on OA. Furthermore, establishing the “indirect” role of the microbiota and the gut is required to fully understand the initiators and drivers of metabolic OA.