Effects and mechanotransduction pathways of therapeutic ultrasound on healthy and osteoarthritic chondrocytes: a systematic review of in vitro studies
Authors' conclusion
The included studies suggest that ultrasound application induces therapeutic effects on chondrocytes.
Study context
- Population
- In vitro studies exploring ultrasound to stimulate chondrocytes for osteoarthritis (OA) treatment: healthy and OA chondrocytes and explants
- Participants
- 31 studies
- Outcome
- Effects and mechanotransduction pathways of therapeutic ultrasound on chondrocytes
Methodological detailsRoBANS risk-of-bias assessment, Most studies had high risk of performance, detection and pseudoreplication bias (lack of temperature control, setup calibration, inadequate semi-quantitative analyses and independent experiments), Ultrasound applied to the culture plate via acoustic gel, water bath or culture media, PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science searched up to 19th September 2021
- RoBANS risk-of-bias assessment
- Most studies had high risk of performance, detection and pseudoreplication bias (lack of temperature control, setup calibration, inadequate semi-quantitative analyses and independent experiments)
- Ultrasound applied to the culture plate via acoustic gel, water bath or culture media
- PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science searched up to 19th September 2021
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
- Regardless of setup, ultrasound stimulated cartilage production and suppressed its degradation, although the effect size was nonsignificant
- In OA chondrocytes, ultrasound inhibited p38, JNK and NFκB pathways to reduce apoptosis, inflammation and matrix degradation
- In healthy chondrocytes, ultrasound triggered PI3K/Akt, ERK, p38 and JNK pathways to promote matrix synthesis
Original publication
Effects and mechanotransduction pathways of therapeutic ultrasound on healthy and osteoarthritic chondrocytes: a systematic review of in vitro studies. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. Published 5 December 2022. doi:10.
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