uKNEEque envisions a synergy between clinical observations in patients, molecular pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) and microengineering with the aim of developing a novel human joint in vitro model to advance our knowledge on the molecular evolution of the disease, on the cross talks between relevant joint compartments (articular cartilage and subchondral bone) and on a putative therapeutic strategy to revert OA conditions.

We hypothesize that an altered cross talk between joint compartments is the key regulator of OA pathological remodelling of the joint and that – as per recent studies on nasal chondrocytes (NCs) - this dysfunction can be reverted by soluble factors secreted by non-articular cartilage cells. To investigate this we aim at

i) developing a 3D in vitro microplatform hosting a representative model of human joint including a cartilage construct adjacent to a bone construct;
ii) driving this model to express OA traits by taking advantage of clinical observations in OA patients (inflammatory molecules and OA markers);
iii) exploiting this model to investigate molecular signalling pathways at the basis of the disease;
iv) evaluating the potential of non-articular cartilage cells to attenuate inflammatory conditions.

uKNEEque will be carried out by an established research consortium with long-standing collaborative partnership in the field of cartilage tissue engineering and microfabrication of tissue models:

- Politecnico di Milano (IT)-POLIMI unit has access to microfabrication facilities and cell culture facilities. It has renowned experience in developing and studying biological models within custom-designed microfluidic devices for cell cultures and tissue engineering.

- University Hospital Basel (CH)-UNIBASEL unit is focused on cartilage/bone engineering and counts on molecular biologists, engineers and surgeons. It has extensive experience with cell culture, clinical trial procedures (including NCs) and collection and analysis of samples from OA patients.