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We have some questions about the answer to the first key question addressed in the article by Ebeling and colleagues[1]: What is the efficacy and relative effectiveness of percutaneous vertebroplasty in improving pain, physical function, and quality of life? In references 6[3] and 11,[4] the author used pain reduction; in reference 8,[2] the author used pain score. Taken together, the data from these articles might not be suitable for proper meta-analysis on the subject of outcomes after the vertebroplasty in patients with pain less than 6 weeks. [Extracted from the article]

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is one of the most prevalent forms of epigenetic modification and plays an important role in the development of degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA). However, the evidence concerning the role of m6A modification in OA is insufficient. Here, m6A modification was increased in human OA cartilage and degenerated chondrocytes. Among all of the m6A enzymes, the expression of the demethylase fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) decreased dramatically. Conditional knockout of FTO in chondrocytes accelerates OA progression. FTO transcription is regulated by runt-related transcription factor-1 (RUNX1). Reduced FTO elevates m6A modification at the adenosine N6 position in SMAD family member 2 (SMAD2) mRNA, whose stability is subsequently modulated by the recruited m6A reader protein YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein F2 (YTHDF2). Collectively, these findings reveal the function and mechanism of the m6A family member FTO in OA progression. Therefore, reducing m6A modification to increase SMAD2 stability by activating FTO might be a potential therapeutic strategy for OA treatment., (© 2024. The Author(s).)