Evaluation of biomarkers following autologous osteochondral transplantation in the equine stifle joint – An experimental study.

The study discusses an experiment analyzing changes in biomarkers and synovial parameters in horses after autologous osteochondral transplantation (AOT) in the stifle joint. The researchers aimed to see if significant differences were seen at certain points in time after the surgery, as compared to before the operation.

Experiment Design

The research was carried out on both stifle joints of nine horses, making a total of 18 joints studied. On a random basis, some joints were actually operated, while ‘sham’ surgeries were performed on others.

• The grafts used in the operation measured 8.5mm in diameter. They were gathered from the femoropatellar (FP) joint under arthroscopic control.
• In the real surgeries, the medial femorotibial (MFT) joints received the AOT using mosaicplasty (MP) instruments.
• In the sham surgeries, the FP and MFT joints went through an arthroscopy and a miniarthrotomy, but without the transplantation process.

Data Collection and Analysis

The parameters of the synovial fluid (SF) in the joints were evaluated on the 4th, 14th, 60th and 180th days following surgery. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data with any result at P < 0.05 considered significant.

Observations and Results

Observations were made on the horses’ reaction post-surgery. For the initial 10-14 days after the operation, the horses exhibited noticeable lameness, which was scored 2-3/5, according to American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) standards. However, by the 60th day post-surgery, this lameness had disappeared.

On the biomarker front, joints that had undergone transplantation showed significant increase at day 3 in:

• Synovial White Blood Cell count (WBC)
• Total protein (TP)
• Substance P
• C1,2C
• CS846 epitope concentration

These measurements were comparing against the baseline values and the sham-operated joints. However, by two months after the operation, these parameters had returned to their initial levels, and remained within normal range by the sixth month after the operation.