Joint Macrophage Populations Present Diverse Expression Profiles Following Knee Injury

Purpose: Osteoarthritis (OA) is common and complex disease with poorly understood etiology, however increasing focus has targeted inflammation and the immune system in OA pathogenesis. After age, joint trauma is one of the strongest predictors of (OA) development, know as post-traumatic OA (PTOA). Through the use of single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) we looked at characterizing the populations of macrophages, phagocytic immune cells which can reside in tissue niches and perform specialized roles in tissue homeostasis in the knee.