Prevention of Post mEniscectomy Osteoarthritis: From New Animal Model to Patient pRofiLing

Data collection from patients included in the observational clinical study will be achieved by the following activities: A total of 100 patients with degenerative meniscal tears will be enrolled in the observational study and treated according to the current standard of care which consists in an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy in all the three clinical operative Unit involved in the project. Demographic, anamnestic and clinical data (age, gender, BMI, habits, co-morbidities, pharmacological treatments) of the patients included in the observational clinical study will be collected. Clinical routine assessments will be performed before surgery to assess the overall condition of the joint. A morphological profiling based on the MRI will be performed on patients prior or after the surgery since no change in knee morphology is expected to occur. Clinical routine assessments will be performed also after treatment to check for possible joint changes after the surgery. Before surgery, peripheral blood samples from each patient enrolled in the observational study will be collected. Total blood count will be registered and included in the set of the patients' data. Total RNA will be purified from the blood samples and integrity of each RNA sample will be evaluated to exclude possible degradation during the procedure.Total RNA will be preamplified to perform the qRT-PCR-based analysis sifting a well-described set of 754 miRNAs panel known for their involvement in several joint and blood cell types' homeostasis and activation. The most abundantly expressed and relevant miRNAs will be identified in the whole set of samples and included in the set of the patients' data. Combination and interpretation of the clinical, morphological, imaging and biomarker -omics data will follow in order to identify the patient characteristics that are more associated to the development of post-meniscectomy OA, following these steps: A patient registry (PEARL registry) containing all the anam