Halting the Progression of Osteoarthritis in Mice

Osteoarthritis is one of the more common age-related conditions, and at the present time little can be done to treat the causes other than to alter lifestyle in ways that usually slow down the progression of the condition. Signs of progress towards effective therapies are on the horizon, however:

[Scientists] have turned their view of osteoarthritis (OA) inside out. Literally. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, they now have evidence that the bone underneath the cartilage is also a key player and exacerbates the damage. In a proof-of-concept experiment, they found that blocking the action of a critical bone regulation protein in mice halts progression of the disease.

Using mice with ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears, which are known to lead to OA of the knee, the researchers found that, as soon as one week after the injury, pockets of subchondral bone had been "chewed" away by cells called osteoclasts. This process activated high levels in the bone of a protein called TGF-beta1, which, in turn, recruited stem cells to the site so that they could create new bone to fill the holes. But the bone building and the bone destruction processes were not coordinated in the mice, and the bone building prevailed, placing further strain on the cartilage cap. It is this extraneous bone formation that [researchers] believe to be at the heart of OA, as confirmed in a computer simulation of the human knee.

With this new hypothesis in hand, complete with a protein suspect, the team tried several methods to block the activity of TGF-beta1. When a TGF-beta1 inhibitor drug was given intravenously, the subchondral bone improved significantly, but the cartilage cap deteriorated further. However, when a different inhibitor of TGF-beta1, an antibody against it, was injected directly into the subchondral bone, the positive effects were seen in the bone without the negative effects on the cartilage. The same result was also seen when TGF-beta1 was genetically disrupted in the bone precursor cells alone.

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/jhm-nto051713.php

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