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Osteoarthritis

Osteoporotic OA: a reasonable target for bone-acting agents

Beneficial effects of bone-acting drugs in osteoarthritis (OA) are increasingly reported, but reliable conclusions regarding their efficacy are hindered by methodological drawbacks in study design. Identifying patients with osteoporotic OA, a phenotype defined by decreased density associated with high remodelling in subchondral bone, might improve the success of bone-directed agents.

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Figure 1: Increased subchondral bone remodelling and subsequent pathology are the target of anti-osteoporotic therapy in OA.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of S. Castañeda from the Department of Rheumatology, Hospital de La Princesa, Madrid, Spain, and R. Largo from the Bone and Joint Research Unit, IIS Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain, for the critical review of this manuscript. The authors' work is supported by research grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI12/00144; PS09/01625).

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Correspondence to Gabriel Herrero-Beaumont.

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Herrero-Beaumont, G., Roman-Blas, J. Osteoporotic OA: a reasonable target for bone-acting agents. Nat Rev Rheumatol 9, 448–450 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.113

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