Exerkines and osteoarthritis

Shuangshuo Jia; Ziyao Yu; Lunhao Bai

doi:10.3389/fphys.2023.1302769

Exerkines and osteoarthritis

Front Physiol. 2023 Dec 1:14:1302769. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1302769. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shuangshuo Jia¹, Ziyao Yu², Lunhao Bai¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
² Imaging Department, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent chronic joint disease, with physical exercise being a widely endorsed strategy in its management guidelines. Exerkines, defined as cytokines secreted in response to acute and chronic exercise, function through endocrine, paracrine, and/or autocrine pathways. Various tissue-specific exerkines, encompassing exercise-induced myokines (muscle), cardiokines (heart), and adipokines (adipose tissue), have been linked to exercise therapy in OA. Exerkines are derived from these kines, but unlike them, only kines regulated by exercise can be called exerkines. Some of these exerkines serve a therapeutic role in OA, such as irisin, metrnl, lactate, secreted frizzled-related protein (SFRP), neuregulin, and adiponectin. While others may exacerbate the condition, such as IL-6, IL-7, IL-15, IL-33, myostatin, fractalkine, follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1), visfatin, activin A, migration inhibitory factor (MIF), apelin and growth differentiation factor (GDF)-15. They exerts anti-/pro-apoptosis/pyroptosis/inflammation, chondrogenic differentiation and cell senescence effect in chondrocyte, synoviocyte and mesenchymal stem cell. The modulation of adipokine effects on diverse cell types within the intra-articular joint emerges as a promising avenue for future OA interventions. This paper reviews recent findings that underscore the significant role of tissue-specific exerkines in OA, delving into the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms involved.

Keywords: adipokine; cardiokine; exercise; exerkine; myokine; osteoarthritis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82102613 and 82172479), the Fundamental Research Project of Liaoning Provincial Department of Education (LJKQZ2021028) and the Fundamental Research Project of plan to revitalize talents in Liaoning (XLYC2002029).