Osteoarthritis (OA) is an important cause of
pain, disability and economic loss in humans, and is similarly important in
the horse. Recent knowledge on post-traumatic OA has suggested opportunities
for early intervention, but it is difficult to identify the appropriate
time of these interventions. The horse provides two useful mechanisms
to answer these questions: 1) extensive experience with clinical
OA in horses; and 2) use of a consistently predictable model of
OA that can help study early pathobiological events, define targets
for therapeutic intervention and then test these putative therapies.
This paper summarises the syndromes of clinical OA in horses including
pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment, and details controlled studies
of various treatment options using an equine model of clinical OA.
The major problem with repair of an articular cartilage injury
is the extensive difference in the structure and function of regenerated,
compared with normal cartilage. Our work investigates the feasibility
of repairing articular osteochondral defects in the canine knee
joint using a composite lamellar scaffold of nano-ß-tricalcium phosphate
(ß-TCP)/collagen (col) I and II with bone marrow stromal stem cells
(BMSCs) and assesses its biological compatibility. The bone–cartilage scaffold was prepared as a laminated composite,
using hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nano-HAP)/collagen I/copolymer
of polylactic acid–hydroxyacetic acid as the bony scaffold, and
sodium hyaluronate/poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) as the cartilaginous
scaffold. Ten-to 12-month-old hybrid canines were randomly divided
into an experimental group and a control group. BMSCs were obtained
from the iliac crest of each animal, and only those of the third
generation were used in experiments. An articular osteochondral
defect was created in the right knee of dogs in both groups. Those
in the experimental group were treated by implanting the composites
consisting of the lamellar scaffold of ß-TCP/col I/col II/BMSCs.
Those in the control group were left untreated.Objectives
Methods
Excessive mechanical stress on synovial joints causes osteoarthritis
(OA) and results in the production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a
key molecule in arthritis, by synovial fibroblasts. However, the
relationship between arthritis-related molecules and mechanical
stress is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine
the synovial fibroblast response to cyclic mechanical stress using
an Human synovial fibroblasts were cultured on collagen scaffolds
to produce three-dimensional constructs. A cyclic compressive loading
of 40 kPa at 0.5 Hz was applied to the constructs, with or without
the administration of a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) selective inhibitor
or dexamethasone, and then the concentrations of PGE2, interleukin-1β (IL-1β),
tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-6, IL-8 and COX-2 were measured.Objective
Method