High plasma levels of vitamin C and E are associated with incident radiographic knee osteoarthritis

Summary Background Previous studies suggest that the antioxidants vitamins C and E may protect against development of knee osteoarthritis (OA). We examined the association of circulating levels of vitamin C and E with incident whole knee radiographic OA (WKROA). Methods We performed a nested case–control study of incident WKROA in MOST, a cohort of 3,026 men and women aged 50–79 years with, or at high risk of, knee OA. Incident cases were knees without either tibiofemoral (TF) or patellofemoral (PF) OA at baseline that developed TF and/or PF OA by 30-month follow-up. Two control knees per case were selected from those eligible for WKROA that did not develop it. Vitamin C and E (alpha-tocopherol) assays were done on baseline supernatant plasma (PCA) and serum samples, respectively. We examined the association of gender-specific tertiles of vitamin C and E with incident WKROA using logistic regression with GEE, adjusting for age, gender, and obesity. Results Subjects without WKROA at baseline who were in the highest tertile of vitamin C had a higher incidence of WKROA [adjusted OR = 2.20 (95% CI: 1.12–4.33); P -value = 0.021], with similar results for the highest tertile of vitamin E [adjusted OR = 1.89 (1.02–3.50); P -value = 0.042], compared to those in the lowest tertiles. P -values for the trend of vitamin C and E tertiles and incident WKROA were 0.019 and 0.030, respectively. Conclusions Higher levels of circulating vitamin C and E did not provide protection against incident radiographic knee OA, and may be associated with an increased risk of knee OA.