Recent advances in association studies of osteoarthritis susceptibility genes.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a polygenic disease with a definite genetic component, and recent advances in genome research have enabled us to investigate OA susceptibility genes. Several research groups, including ours, have reported the identification of OA susceptibility genes, mainly using candidate gene association studies. However, we are now entering the era of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here, we review recent progress in the study of susceptibility genes for OA, focusing in particular on GWAS and large-scale replication studies.