![chaperone mediated autophagy chaperone mediated autophagy](https://els-jbs-prod-cdn.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/cms/attachment/8e558732-b914-4268-a2bc-bffbd62ac0e8/gr1_lrg.jpg)
The functional consequences were studied in primary human OA chondrocytes. The candidate gene was evaluated in human knee joint tissues (cartilage, meniscus, ligaments, synovium) with different KL grades (KL0, 2, 4) and in both spontaneous aging and surgically-induced OA in mice by IHC. Confirmatory studies were performed in blood from Non-OA subjects (n=30) and Knee-OA subjects (n=30, OA III-IV). Non-OA subjects (n=18) and Knee OA subjects (n=18, OA III-IV) were profiled using an autophagy gene expression array. Methods: A comparative analysis of 35 autophagy genes was performed from blood from the Prospective OA Cohort of A Coruña (PROCOAC). Therefore, identifying hallmarks associated with specific autophagy subtypes could shed light to fundamental mechanisms of joint disease. Keywords: cartilage, chondrocyte, Osteoarthritisīackground/Purpose: In osteoarthritis (OA), defects in Autophagy are evident and precede joint damage. Departamento de Fisioterapia, Medicina y Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Fisioterapia, Campus de Oza, 15008, A Coruña, España., A Coruña, Spain C/ As Xubias de Arriba 84, 15006, A Coruña, España.Universidade da Coruña (UDC), Grupo de Investigación de Reumatología y Salud (GIR-S). Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña (CHUAC), Sergas. Grupo de Investigación de Reumatología (GIR). A Coruña, España, A Coruña, Spain, 3Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña (CHUAC), A Coruña, Spain, 4Unidad de Proteómica. Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña (CHUAC), Sergas. Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de A Coruña (INIBIC). pinto 3, Francisco Blanco-García 4 and Beatriz Caramés 1, 1Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de A Coruña (INIBIC), A Coruña, Spain, 2Servicio de Reumatología. Irene Lorenzo-Gómez 1, Uxía Nogueira-Recalde 1, Natividad Oreiro 2, José A.