Musculoskeletal pain has a high prevalence of transition to chronic pain and/or persistence as chronic pain for years or even a lifetime. Possible mechanisms for the development of such pain states are often reflected in inflammatory or neuropathic processes involving, among others, cytokines and other molecules. Since biologics such as blockers of TNF or IL-6 can attenuate inflammation and pain in a subset of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the question arises to what extent cytokines are involved in the generation of pain in human musculoskeletal diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterferon-γ (IFNγ) and interleukin-17 (IL-17) are master regulators of innate and adaptive immunity. Here we asked whether these cytokines also regulate pain. Both cytokines increased the excitability of isolated small- to medium-sized sensory neurons, suggesting a pronociceptive effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis (OA), increasing OA progression and OA pain. To gain insight into the underlying mechanisms of how DM exacerbates OA processes and OA pain, this study analyzed histological differences of synovial tissues from non-DM and DM patients with OA and correlated these differences with knee pain severity.
Materials And Methods: Synovial tissue was obtained from 12 non-DM and 10 DM patients with advanced knee OA who underwent total knee arthroplasty.