Roles of Long Noncoding RNAs in the Development and Progression of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common chronic joint disease in the elderly population, is mainly characterized by the degeneration of articular cartilage and its pathogenesis is not fully understood yet. Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)are of a new class of regulatory non-coding RNAs with a length longer than 200 nucleotides. They lack open reading frames and have no potential capacity forprotein translation. Increasing evidence indicates that LncRNAs can be differentially expressed in the normal articular cartilage and OA cartilage. Moreover, some lncRNAs have been shown to be involved in multiple pathological processes of OA, including extracellular matrix degradation, inflammatory responses, apoptosis, angiogenesis, autophagy, the response of chondrocytes to mechanic stress, etc. In this review article, we will focus on the function of lnc-RNAs in the development and progression of OA and the potential new targets that might be used for the diagnosis and treatment of OA.