Abstract Summary
Joint overloading has been historically implicated in the comorbid association between osteoarthritis (OA) and obesity. However, findings in obese mice and humans strongly suggest that load-independent systemic and joint inflammation are lynchpin drivers of joint degeneration. New evidence suggests that accelerated OA in obesity is caused by a dysbiosis in the gut microbiome. Consumption of a high fat diet is associated with shifts in the community of microbes in the colon, including increased abundance of several species associated with activation of inflammation. Correction of this dysbiosis substantially decelerates joint degeneration in obesity, suggesting a gut microbiome-joint connection that warrants deeper investigation. Overall, defining that the OA of obesity is caused by the gut microbiome would implicate targeting it as a novel treatment strategy for a prevalent and disabling disease that currently can only be addressed palliatively.
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