Finding a Solution to Creaky Joints

Many of us in our later years suffer from a disease that is most noticeable when getting up in the morning, walking down stairs or simply spending time on our feet. The disease is osteoarthritis and most of us feel its effects as we age or as our joints experience excessive wear.  For some, the pain can be unbearable.

Disease of the Bone and Joints

Osteoarthritis is caused by a gradual deterioration of cartilage, the tough yet elastic tissue that covers the ends of long bones and cushions joints. This very common disease can be caused by an injury or by the aging process.

At least 50 million adults in the United States alone and close to 15 percent of the world’s adult population suffer from this painful and disabling disease. There is no cure and there are few treatments that have been shown to slow the progression of the disease. Current treatments mostly decrease the pain that results when the cartilage wears away and bone rubs against bone.

Since joining UND in 2002, Gene Homandberg, Ph.D., professor and chair of the biochemistry and molecular biology department, has formed a team to investigate cartilage damage.  They are hard at work studying osteoarthritis in order to provide a better understanding of the disease’s progression and to test possible treatments that may slow the progression or even reverse the damage of osteoarthritis.

One of his team’s recent studies that looks at the effects of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate on cartilage damage soon will be published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, one of the two top journals that publishes biochemical studies of osteoarthritis.

Supplemental Treatment

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are naturally occurring food supplements that many take in over-the-counter pill form to alleviate joint pain. In their study, Homandberg’s team including Danping Guo, M.S., Linda Ray, (BSMT '83) and graduate student, Lei Ding, found that these agents not only prevent cartilage damage, but can actually restore cartilage in their laboratory model for the disease.

“Prior to this study, many researchers believed that a patient can’t get enough glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate through supplements to make a difference,” said Homandberg. 

However, he and his team demonstrated that these agents, at concentrations as low as found in patients taking these supplements, are effective at preventing cartilage damage and even restoring tissue in cultured cartilage.

“Recent clinical studies have suggested that these supplements do have a weak effect but only in patients with severe cartilage damage,” said Homandberg.  “However, our results still leave open the possibility that taking these supplements earlier could slow the progression of cartilage damage in those patients predisposed to severe osteoarthritis.”

“This work will bring attention to UND,” Homandberg said.  “More and more people are interested in the role of nutrition and supplements in maintaining healthy cartilage and pay attention to new discoveries that they think may provide a higher quality of life.  Babyboomers are especially interested in staying active in their later years and so many magazines and Web sites provide extensive coverage of observations such as ours.”

-Amanda Scurry

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