ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Intraarticular injection of relaxin-2 alleviates shoulder arthrofibrosis.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of extracellular vesicle-derived microRNAs involved in organ fibrosis: implications for arthrofibrosis therapy.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Divergent activation of the RXFP1 relaxin receptor by protein and small molecule agonists.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Circular RNA encoding relaxin-2 as a potential therapy for liver fibrosis.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2026Article
- Hyperlipidemia exacerbates frozen shoulder fibrosis by activating the TGF-β/Smad2/3 signaling pathway via the TBX5-TNC-Itgα2 axis.iScience · 2026Article
- Signaling pathway networks in frozen shoulder fibrosis: from inflammatory initiation to fibrotic progression.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Relaxin-2 drives regenerative healing and suppresses scar formation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Frozen shoulder: a narrative review of current treatment concepts and the underlying scientific evidence.Clinics in shoulder and elbow · 2025Article
- Non-surgical Management of Post-traumatic Elbow Stiffness Following a Distal Humerus Fracture: A Case Report.Cureus · 2025Article
- Soft Tissue Injury and Immobilization Are Both Required for Persistent Elbow Contracture in a Rat Model.Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society · 2025Article
- Basic Science Research in Frozen Shoulder: Current Updates.Indian journal of orthopaedics · 2025Article
- Efficacy of ozone therapy in the treatment of frozen shoulder in rats: An experimental study.Joint diseases and related surgery · 2025Article
- Review
- Engineering and Characterization of a Long-Half-Life Relaxin Receptor RXFP1 Agonist.Molecular pharmaceutics · 2024Article
- Relaxin as a treatment for musculoskeletal fibrosis: What we know and future directions.Biochemical pharmacology · 2024Review
- Review
- Metformin improves fibroblast metabolism and ameliorates arthrofibrosis in rats.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2023Article
- Adhesive Capsulitis of Hip-A Systematic Review of Literature.Indian journal of orthopaedics · 2023Review
- Salvianolic acid B attenuates inflammation and prevent pathologic fibrosis by inhibiting CD36-mediated activation of the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway in frozen shoulder.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Relaxin in fibrotic ligament diseases: Its regulatory role and mechanism.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Minimally invasive, sustained-release relaxin-2 microparticles reverse arthrofibrosis.Science translational medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Arthrofibrosis is a prevalent condition affecting greater than 5% of the general population and leads to a painful decrease in joint range of motion (ROM) and loss of independence due to pathologic accumulation of periarticular scar tissue. Current treatment options are limited in effectiveness and do not address the underlying cause of the condition: accumulation of fibrotic collagenous tissue. Herein, the naturally occurring peptide hormone relaxin-2 is administered for the treatment of adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder) and to restore glenohumeral ROM in shoulder arthrofibrosis. Recombinant human relaxin-2 down-regulates type I collagen and α smooth muscle actin production and increases intracellular cAMP concentration in human fibroblast-like synoviocytes, consistent with a mechanism of extracellular matrix degradation and remodeling. Pharmacokinetic profiling of a bolus administration into the glenohumeral joint space reveals the brief systemic and intraarticular (IA) half-lives of relaxin-2: 0.96 h and 0.62 h, respectively. Furthermore, using an established, immobilization murine model of shoulder arthrofibrosis, multiple IA injections of human relaxin-2 significantly improve ROM, returning it to baseline measurements collected before limb immobilization. This is in contrast to single IA (sIA) or multiple i.v. (mIV) injections of relaxin-2 with which the ROM remains constrained. The histological hallmarks of contracture (e.g., fibrotic adhesions and reduced joint space) are absent in the animals treated with multiple IA injections of relaxin-2 compared with the untreated control and the sIA- and mIV-treated animals. As these findings show, local delivery of relaxin-2 is an innovative treatment of shoulder arthrofibrosis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.