Eleanor Knight
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Tristan Maerz
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Orthopaedic Surgery / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Tristan Maerz, Eleanor Knight, Easton Farrell
Presenter: 112
Abstract
Osteoarthritis is one of the most pervasive joint diseases and leading causes of disability, yet treatments are still abundantly ineffective due to a lack of understanding of the cellular mechanisms involved in its occurrence. Utilizing a model of post-traumatic osteoarthritic mice, the cellular mechanisms at the synovium are studied. Murine synovial fibroblasts were isolated and treated with differing media conditions (DMSO [control], Yoda1, PKF, CHIR) all containing wnt3a to determine if Piezo1, a mechanosensitive Ca2+ channel active in inflammatory onset, promotes a pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic phenotype in synovial fibroblasts. Two technical replicates each were surgically extracted from six bio-replicates and cultured in T25, T75, and T125 flasks for 10 days. Each technical replica was divided and incubated in the four media conditions, then subjected to RNA extraction and quantified using nanodrop. Using scRT-PCR, it has been found that the impact of wnt3a and PKF in their designated conditions are yielding data as expected in our gene expression. This means our control conditions are working well. It is hoped to find that the Yoda1 condition yields deltaCT values supporting Piezo1 agonism. That data would show that expression of Piezo1 is occurring in the control, CHIR, and Yoda1 media conditions, but not in the PKF media condition. This would be in line with the hypothesis that Piezo1 activation promotes a pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic phenotype in synovial fibroblasts, and therefore has a leading cellular role in the onset of osteoarthritis. Given these results are found, research targeting Piezo1 for an effective treatment for osteoarthritis could begin.
Biomedical Sciences, Interdisciplinary
