Circadian time series proteomics reveals daily dynamics in cartilage physiology

Objectives Articular cartilage undergoes cyclical heavy loading and low load recovery during the 24-hour day/night cycle. We investigated the daily changes of protein abundance in mouse femoral head articular cartilage by performing 24-hour time-series proteomics study. Methods Tandem mass spectrometry analysis was used to quantify proteins extracted from mouse cartilage. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to quantify rhythmic changes in protein abundance. Primary chondrocytes were isolated and cultured for independent validation of selected rhythmic proteins. Results 145 rhythmic proteins were detected. Among these were key cartilage molecules including CCN2, MATN1, PAI-1 and PLOD1 & 2. Pathway analysis revealed that proteins related to protein synthesis, cytoskeleton and glucose metabolism exhibited time-of-day dependent peaks in their abundance. Meta-analysis of published proteomics datasets from articular cartilage revealed that numerous rhythmic proteins were dysregulated in osteoarthritis and/or ageing. Conclusions Our circadian proteomics study revealed that articular cartilage is a much more dynamic tissue than previously thought. Chondrocytes exhibit circadian rhythms not only in gene expression but also in protein abundance. Our results clearly call for the consideration of circadian timing in understanding cartilage biology, osteoarthritis pathogenesis, treatment strategies and biomarker detection.