ANALYSIS ON THE CHANGES OF SERUM TLR4, CXCL12 AND CTX-Ⅱ LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH TRAUMATIC KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS

Zhonglin Lu¹, Zhe Xu², Shuaixian Tao¹, Zaigang Dong¹, Zhaowei Li^{1, *}

¹Department of traumatic orthopaedics, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, China, 810001 - ²The second Department of Orthopaedics, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, China, 810001

Introduction: To investigate the changes of serum toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4), CXC-type chemokine ligand 12 (CXCL12) and type II collagen carboxy-terminal peptide (CTX-II) levels traumatic knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients.

Materials and method: One hundred and seventy patients with traumatic KOA were selected as the case group. Before admission, case group were classified according to knee X-ray findings of Kellgren-Lawrence (K-L) grading scale into Grade I+II subgroup (n=87) and Grade III+IV subgroup (n=83). Eighty healthy physical examiners with normal knee joints were selected as a normal control group. Serum TLR4, CXCL12 and CTX-II levels were measured. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore correlation between serum TLR4, CXCL12, CTX-Ⅱ levels and American Knee Society Score (KSS) and Hospital for Special Surgery Knee Score (HSS) in the case group. 

Results: Serum TLR4, CXCL12 and CTX-II levels in the case group were higher than those in the normal control group (all P<0.01). Compared with Grade III+IV subgroup, serum TLR4, CXCL12 and CTX-II levels in Grade Ⅰ+II subgroup were lower (all P<0.001), KSS and HSS scores in Grade Ⅰ+II subgroup were higher (P=0.001, 0.009, respectively). Pearson correlation analysis showed that TLR4, CXCL12 and CTX-II in the case group were negatively correlated with KSS and HSS scores (all P<0.001).

Conclusion: Serum TLR4, CXCL12, and CTX-II levels abnormally increase in traumatic KOA patients, and their levels may be closely related to knee function. Serum TLR4, CXCL12, and CTX-II may be potential serum markers for the early diagnosis of traumatic KOA patients and for assessment of disease severity.