Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 26, 2019; 7(16): 2134-2142
Published online Aug 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i16.2134
Role of infrapatellar fat pad in pathological process of knee osteoarthritis: Future applications in treatment
Li-Feng Jiang, Jing-Hua Fang, Li-Dong Wu
Li-Feng Jiang, Jing-Hua Fang, Li-Dong Wu, Department of Orthopedics Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Jiang LF and Fang JH contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors. All authors have read and approved the final submitted manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest declared by any other author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Li-Dong Wu, MPhil, Chief Doctor, Chief Doctor, Department of Orthopedics Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No. 88, Jiefang Road, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China. wulidong@zju.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-571-87783550 Fax: +86-0571-87783550
Received: January 19, 2019
Peer-review started: January 22, 2019
First decision: May 31, 2019
Revised: June 11, 2019
Accepted: June 26, 2019
Article in press: June 27, 2019
Published online: August 26, 2019
Processing time: 219 Days and 22.7 Hours
Abstract

It has been found that obese people have a higher proportion in suffering from osteoarthritis (OA), not only in the weight-bearing joints like knee and hip joints, even in non-weight-bearing joints such as hand joints. One of the reasons is because the large amount of adipose tissue secretes some factors, which can promote the occurrence of arthritis. As an important structure of the knee joint, the infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) is actually a piece of adipose tissue. The aim of this review is to offer a comprehensive view of the anatomy and physiological characteristics of IPFP and its relationship with the pathological process of OA, indicating the important function of IPFP in OA. At the same time, with the development of adipose derived stem cells in the treatment of OA, owing to its special advantages, the IPFP is becoming a kind of important, minimally invasive fat stem cell source, providing a new approach for the treatment of OA. We hope that this review will offer an overview of all published data regarding the IPFP and will indicate novel directions for future research.

Keywords: Infrapatellar fat pad; Osteoarthritis; Human mesenchymal stem cells

Core tip: The infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) is a piece of adipose tissue, however, due to its special position in the knee joint and the anatomical and physiological characteristics, IPFP plays important roles in the pathological process of osteoarthritis (OA). Meanwhile, the IPFP is becoming a kind of important, minimally invasive fat stem cell source, which can treat OA. We herein widely review the pertinent literature, summarize and analyze the IPFP related vascular and nerve supply, the dual role of IPFP, and its future application prospects.