Third, although OA is considered as a whole-joint disorder, we mainly focused on the suppressive effect of ACSCs and TNFAIP3-modified ACSCs on osteoclasts in our study, which does not elucidate the involvement of other cell types such as macrophages and osteoblasts which are also important in the pathogenesis of OA. This evidence concerns the gene TNFAIP3 and arthropathy.