Li, ChenshuangZheng, Zhong2023-05-222023-05-222021-01-022022-06-27https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/9233As the leading cause of disability, osteoarthritis (OA) affects people of all ages, sexes, and races. With the increasing understanding of OA, the sex differences have attracted specific attention as the burden of OA is greater in women. There is no doubt that gender-specific OA management has great potential for precision treatment. On the other hand, from the marketing aspect, a medication targeting the OA-responsive biomarker(s) shared by both genders is more favorable for drug development. Thus, in the current study, a published transcriptome dataset of knee articular cartilage was used to compare OA and healthy samples for identifying the genes with the same significantly different expression trend in both males and females. With 128 genes upregulated and 143 genes downregulated in both OA males and females, 9 KEGG pathways have been enriched based on the current knowledge, including ‘renal cell carcinoma,’ ‘ECM-receptor interaction,’ ‘HIF-1 signaling pathway,’ ‘MicroRNAs in cancer,’ ‘focal adhesion,’ ‘Relaxin signaling pathway,’ ‘breast cancer,’ ‘PI3K-Akt signaling pathway,’ and ‘human papillomavirus infection.’ Here, we explore the potential impacts of these clusters in OA. We also analyze the identified ‘cell plasma membrane related genes’ in-depth to identify the potential chondrocyte cell surface target(s) of OA management. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.BiomarkerCartilageGenderOsteoarthritisWhole transcriptome sequencingAdultAgedAged80 and overBiomarkersCartilageChondrocytesFemaleGene Expression RegulationHumansKnee JointMaleMicroRNAsMiddle AgedOsteoarthritisKneeSex CharacteristicsSignal TransductionTranscriptomebeta integrincadherincadherin 2caspase recruitment domain protein 15CD18 antigenglutamine receptor 2growth factor receptorhepsinintegrin beta 8mast/stem cell growth factor receptor kitmicroRNAmicrosomal aminopeptidasen methyl dextro aspartic acid receptor 2Anerve cell adhesion moleculeneural cell adhesion molecule 1platelet derived growth factor Creceptor activity modifying protein 3relaxinretinoic acid receptor alphasecreted frizzled related protein 4tenascintenascin rThy 1 membrane glycoproteintranscriptomeunclassified drugvasculotropin AWnt5a proteinbiological markermicroRNAtranscriptomeArticlearticular cartilagebreast cancercontrolled studydown regulationfemalefocal adhesiongene expressionhumanknee meniscusknee osteoarthritismalemultidimensional scalingpapillomavirus infectionPi3K/Akt signalingprincipal component analysisprotein protein interactionrenal cell carcinomaRNA sequencingupregulationadultagedbloodcartilagechondrocytegene expression regulationgeneticsgrowthdevelopment and agingkneeknee osteoarthritismetabolismmiddle agedpathologysexual characteristicssignal transductionvery elderlyDentistryArticle