Intra-articular ozone slows down the process of degeneration of articular cartilage in the knees of rats with osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease of multifactorial etiology, affecting mainly the knees. We aimed to evaluate the effects of two different doses of gaseous ozone intra-articularly on the knee cartilage morphology of rats with osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: The articular lesion was induced by sodium monoiodoacetate (MIA). 40 Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups: G1 control (without lesion and without treatment), G2 articular lesion (AL) (only lesion MIA-induced), G3 AL + treatment with 5 µg/mL of ozone intra-articular, and G4 AL + treatment with 10 µg/mL of ozone intra-articular. The experiment was carried out for 60 days. RESULTS: Both doses of ozone intra-articular demonstrated less reduction in joint space (G3 and G4) compared to the G2, formation of osteophytes, but without subchondral sclerosis. Ozone decreased the volumetric density of the articular lesion (VV(AL)) of tibial. The treatments recovered VV(AL) of the femur similar to G1. Ozone lower dose (G3) showed lower tibia and femur macroscopic scores. CONCLUSION: Intra-articular gaseous ozone can delay the degeneration of articular cartilage and can represents an integrative therapy in the OA treatment of knee after 60 days of treatment. For the first time the role of ozone in articular cartilage degeneration was evaluated helping to understand this therapy.