Clinical Value of Serum β-Catenin Protein in Monitoring of Progress in Patients with Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head

Background: Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is closely related to the pathogenesis Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). β-catenin, as a major component of Wnt signaling pathway, plays a vital role in the proliferation of osteoblasts. But the effect of altering β-catenin level on the early diagnosis and progress of ONFH have not been studied. Our purpose was to investigate the role of β-catenin level in the progress of ONFH. Method: One hundred and one patients with three stages of ONFH and fifty healthy controls were recruited between May 2016 and November 2016. We divided the patients into 32 cases of stage II, 41 cases of stage Ⅲ and 28 cases of stage IV according to the Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) classification. We evaluated the clinical bone histomorphology, expression position and level of β-Catenin as well as the plasma β-catenin level. Results: We found that serum β-catenin level was significantly higher in the ONFH group than those in healthy control group ( P <0.001). We also found that the area under the curve (AUC) calculated by ROC curve analysis to determine the values for β-catenin levels in ONFH compared with those in the control group was 0.9358( P <0.001), where the sensitivity was 77.23% and specificity was 98.00%. Conclusion: Our results indicated that the increased β-catenin may play a vital role in the progress of ONFH. The cutoff concentration may be used as one of the sensitive signs to assess the disease process of ONFH.