New Treatment For Injuries May Prevent Arthritis

About three million Americans suffer from arthritis as a result of joint injuries that result in slow but steady degradation of their cartilage. Whether from surfing, water skiing, a car accident, or other injuries, joint trauma causes many of us to have lasting osteoarthritis in our joints.

A new scientific development reveals that there may be a chance to prevent this form of arthritis from occurring.

Recent research by scientists at MIT have shown that a steroid drug that is commonly used to treat diseases like arthritis may actually prevent the condition from developing, if given to patients soon after the joint injury occurs.

The study was published in the Journal of Arthritis Research and Therapy in its September 2, 2011 issue, and was written by Alan Grodzinsky, Yihong Lu, both of MIT, and Christopher Evans of Harvard Medical School. Grodzinsky, the senior author of the study, is a professor of biological, mechanical, and electrical engineering, and the director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering.

The journal reported that the cartilage breakdown that occurs after an inury was stopped by treatment with glucocorticoid dexamethasone immediately after the injury. The drug worked best when it was used within a day or two after the trauma.

The researchers have not been able to determine if the drug could reverse cartilage damage that already occurred. But, future research in this area is bound to occur. The researchers are already considering projects to determine whether the treatment reverses the damage in animals with existing injuries. Additionally, the scientists are examining how best to deliver the drug to the injury and how many treatments of the drug is optimal for preventing future damage.

The scientists used cow and human cartilage in the study. They damaged the tissue, and then treated it with inflammatory proteins that the body creates after joint trauma. The drug, glucocorticoid dexamethasone blocked the destruction of the cartilage by the proteins. However, they are not yet entirely sure how the process works.

Until now, typical treatment for this type of injury is to give the patient non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofen) to reduce pain and swelling, and then perform surgery weeks after the injury to correct some of the damage. The new study instead suggests an immediate treatment with the glucocorticoid drug.

The treatment is exciting because, if further research shows that the drug can correct existing damage to the joints, the drug could quickly be put into circulation for this use since it is already approved for human use.