Osteoarthritis is a condition that mainly affects middle-aged to elderly adults. It involves the wearing away of the protective cartilage around a person’s joints. Cartilage is a type of firm tissue that enables smooth joint movement. If the cartilage wears down completely, the bones may rub directly against one another. The disease can also cause changes to the bone and swelling in the joint lining. Symptoms of osteoarthritis include pain, stiffness, tenderness, swelling, the loss of flexibility in the affected area, bone spurs, or a grating sound or sensation during movement. At present, doctors cannot reverse the joint damage caused by osteoarthritis, although the symptoms can be managed through drugs, therapy, cortisone injections, or surgery.
Risk factors for osteoarthritis include aging, being female, obesity, past joint injuries, and repeated joint stress, such as a job or a sport that involves repetitive stress on the joint. As with many other medical conditions, some people appear more likely to develop the disease due to genetics. Other people are born with bone deformities, or develop certain metabolic diseases like diabetes that make them more prone to osteoarthritis.
A new treatment for this disease may be on the horizon. A group of Canadian scientists recently published the results of a small study testing whether injections of mesenchymal stomal cells (MSCs), a type of stem cell obtained from the patients’ bone marrow, could regenerate knee cartilage. While the small study only involved 12 participants, the results were promising, with people who received the injections reporting less pain and an increased quality of life. Inflammation in the joints declined following the injections.
Further testing must be done before we can safely declare these scientists have discovered a new treatment for osteoarthritis. The study was small, and did not result in the desired cartilage regrowth, although scientists noted that regrowth may have been hindered because all participants were in end-stage osteoarthritis. It is possible that people in earlier stages of the disease may have experienced different results.
