Our findings uncover a distinct female-specific musculoskeletal phenotype in early-stage KOA, characterized by muscle degeneration and cartilage deterioration undetectable by radiography. These female-specific clinical manifestations may be due, at least partly, to aberrant adipogenic programming in muscle. These findings provide mechanistic and clinical insight into sexual dimorphism in KOA.
Hoki et al. (2026) studied this question.