Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and the most relevant musculoskeletal disorder worldwide. It is considered to be a joint degenerative disease with imbalanced homeostasis. It can potentially affect any joint in the body, but most often the knees, hip, hand and the lower back suffers from OA. Due to the strong functional association of the joint components OA affects all tissues, present in the joint to a certain degree. Because of its wide occurrence, and great impact on the society OA receives a lot of attention in clinical research, although the molecular background of OA remains incompletely understood. The complexity of the joint structure, and the limited knowledge we have on OA sets many obstacles to the development of effective therapies. As of current state there is no cure for OA.