Ilja Boone | 17-10-2025 | Exploring senescent chondrocytes during aging: sleeper AGEnts of osteoarthritis Osteoarthritis is a painful, age-related joint disease in which cellular senescence plays a central role. Senescent cells are retained from the active cell cycle and secrete harmful factors that contribute to cartilage degradation and tissue damage. Transcriptomic analysis of cartilage [...]
Koen Dekkers | 16-01-2025 | Effects of lipids on DNA methylation and gene expression of immune cells implicated in atherosclerosis Cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death worldwide, are often the result of atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease where lipids and immune cells accumulate in blood vessel walls. While LDL cholesterol has long been [...]
Pia Todtenhaupt | 18-12-2024 | Unravelling the developmental origins of disease: the power of mesenchymal stromal cells and monochorionic twins This thesis explores the mechanisms linking adverse intrauterine environments to long-term health risks. Therefore, the Twinlife study was established. This study includes monochorionic (MC) twins discordant for birthweight to investigate how prenatal nutrition affects growth, [...]
Nathalie Reilly | 30-10-2024 | The effects of triglycerides and fatty acids on T cells: role in atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, is characterized by lipid accumulation in blood vessel walls. This chronic inflammation leads to plaque formation, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. While traditionally linked to cholesterol [...]
Daniele Bizzarri | 11-09-2024 | Metabolomics- and methylomics-based predictors for estimating health and biological aging Over the past decade, the abundance of high-throughput omics approaches coupled with the use of machine learning techniques, has made it possible to investigate the full molecular complexity of health and aging. The primary forcus of this thesis was [...]
When cells reach a permanent growth arrest (Senescence) and resist death, this can result in numerous diseases, such as osteoarthritis. Here we show the presence of two different types of senescence in the blood metabolome of osteoarthritis patients. These blood metabolome patterns could function as biomarkers for patient-tailored targeting of senescence in OA. Accumulation [...]
Ritchie Timmermans | 07-11-2023 | Application of 3D human in vitro osteoarthritic chondrocyte models to study CCN4/WISP1 and Wnt signaling This thesis explores the role of CCN4/WISP1 and Wnt signaling in osteoarthritis (OA) using advanced 3D human in vitro chondrocyte models. OA is characterized by cartilage degeneration and altered chondrocyte behavior, which is not [...]
Margo Tuerlings | 27-09-2023 | The bone and cartilage interplay in osteoarthritis: key to effective treatment strategy Osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent age-related joint disease, determined by diverse changes in pathways maintaining articular cartilage and subchondral bone. This thesis aimed to identify and study gene networks driving interacting etiopathophysiological OA processes in cartilage and [...]
Alejandro Rodríguez Ruiz | 22-10-2022 | Osteoprotegerin: a double-edged sword in osteoarthritis development To advance development of effective disease modifying OA treatments, a better understanding of its pathophysiological mechanisms is necessary. By studyinga family with early onset OA and high cartilage mineralization, a likely causal mutation in the TNF receptor superfamily member 11b (TNFRSF11B) [...]
Evelyn Houtman | 22-10-2022 | Aged human osteochondral explants as biomimetic osteoarthritis model: towards a druggable target in osteoarthritis This thesis aims to increase the understanding of human osteoarthritis pathophysiology by developing reliable biomimetic ex vivo human osteochondral explant models and focussing on the role of osteoarthritis-relevant triggers (mechanical stress) and interacting genetic factors [...]
