'Carbon stress' is a newly found mechanism that links obesity and dysregulated metabolism. It is defined as the cellular accumulation of metabolites during obesity post-translationally modifying metabolic proteins and decreasing their enzymatic activity. The objective of this study was to investigate if 'carbon stress' also occurs in cartilage and contributes to obesity associated OA development.
We histologically evaluated for OA pathology in wild-type (WT) and hyperphagic mice (Pomc-neuron specific enhancer one deficient, Pomc
Both HFD and Pomc deficiency associated obesity induced cartilage degeneration as well as greater abundance of SCK and MAK in the cartilage. Pomc
Our data suggests that carbon stress also occurs in cartilage tissue during obesity and can potentially contribute to obesity-associated OA.