REVIEW article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Pathology
This article is part of the Research TopicPhotomedicine in Bone and Joint Diseases: Mechanisms and Clinical ApplicationsView all articles
Photobiomodulation for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: therapeutic effects and molecular mechanism
Provisionally accepted
Peng Xia1*
Tianxiang Fan1Yangxi Huang2Hanwen Zheng1
Ruoxi Ma1Wenjin Zhou1
Zhi YAO3
Deli Wang3Guoqing Cui4
Marco Pang1
Ye LI1
Siu Ngor Fu1*- 1The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 3Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China
- 4Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China
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Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common chronic and degenerative disease, particularly prevalent in the ageing population. The pathological features of KOA include articular cartilage degeneration, osteophyte formation, subchondral bone changes, and synovial hyperplasia. Photobiomodulation (PBM) involves the application of non-ionizing light sources including laser and light-emitting diodes (LED) and broadband light in the visible and near-infrared spectrum to produce stimulatory effect on healing and modulate the inflammatory process in different tissues, including synovium and cartilage of KOA. However, the therapeutic effectiveness and the molecular mechanism of PBM are not fully understood. The results of clinical studies regarding the effects of PBM on KOA are controversial due to differences in study design and execution among these studies. In addition, the lack of unified standards for the optimal treatment strategies, parameters and courses, which has hampered the application of PBM in KOA. In this review, we synthesized clinical and preclinical evidence to evaluate PBM's efficacy. Our analysis indicates that PBM offers robust symptomatic relief (pain and inflammation) for KOA. However, while preclinical models suggest disease-modifying potential (e.g., cartilage protection), its clinical efficacy in structural regeneration remains speculative and requires further validation through long-term imaging studies.
Keywords: laser, LED, Mechanism, Osteoarthritis, photobiomodulation
Received: 12 Nov 2025; Accepted: 28 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Xia, Fan, Huang, Zheng, Ma, Zhou, YAO, Wang, Cui, Pang, LI and Fu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Peng Xia
Siu Ngor Fu
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