Research Progress on Subchondral Bone Lesions in Knee Osteoarthritis

© 2026 by the Authors. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

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Abstract

This article reviews the research on subchondral bone lesions in knee osteoarthritis. Subchondral bone is closely related to articular cartilage in terms of embryonic development and anatomical structure, and the two form bone-cartilage units. These units interact and crosstalk with each other in biomechanics and molecular biology. Subchondral bone lesions include various pathological forms. There are certain research prospects for the prevention and treatment of knee osteoarthritis targeting the subchondral bone.

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