Osteoarthritis year in review 2018: biology.

This Year in Review highlights a selection of articles published between the 2017 and 2018 Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) World Congress meetings within the field of osteoarthritis biology, presented at OARSI 2018. Selected articles were obtained from a PubMed search covering cartilage, subchondral bone, inflammation, ageing, pain and animal models. Studies focused on biomechanics, biomarkers, genetics and epigenetics, imaging and clinical studies were excluded due to their coverage in other articles within the OARSI Year in Review series. Significant themes including the role of progenitor cells in cartilage homeostasis and repair, novel signalling mechanisms controlling chondrocyte phenotypic stability and the influence of disrupted or senescent chondrocytes were identified and are discussed in this review. Overarching conclusions derived from these study areas indicate that promising avenues of intervention are on the horizon, however further understanding is required in order to target therapeutic treatments to suitable patient subgroups and disease stages.