Lubricant for joints
Artificial knee joint lubricant cured osteoarthritis in rats
Anastasia Kuznetsova-Fantoni, N+1
American and Chinese doctors have synthesized a liquid for the treatment of osteoarthritis that mimics the natural lubrication of joints, which becomes scarce with this disease. It contains a polymer capable of binding water, and ensures the sliding of articular surfaces. The fluid was tested on rats with induced osteoarthritis of the knee — in animals it was possible to reverse inflammatory and dystrophic changes in the joints. The article is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering (Xie et al., Biomimetic cartage-lubricating polymers regenerate cartage in rats with early osteoarthritis).
In osteoarthritis, the articular cartilage covering the bones becomes inflamed. At the first stages, the proliferation of cells that synthesize collagen is enhanced in it, so that the surface of the cartilage is deformed. In addition, in the early stages of osteoarthritis, there is not enough natural lubrication in the joint, which allows the bones in the joint to slide when rotating. This further aggravates inflammation, contributes to joint damage and progression of osteoarthritis.
American and Chinese scientists led by Chuanbin Mao (Chuanbin Mao) from The University of Oklahoma decided to see if it is possible to stop the progression of osteoarthritis if additional lubricant is injected into the joint. In a healthy joint, it is provided by a molecular complex containing hyaluronic acid, the protein lubricin and lipids. The complex attaches to the cartilage, and the protein lubricin binds water molecules — this ensures sliding in the joint. Scientists have developed an artificial analogue of this complex, in which lubricin (it cannot be synthesized in the laboratory) was replaced with poly-2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (PAMPS). It contains a sulfonate group, so it can also bind water, providing the same functions as lubricin.
A liquid containing a synthesized molecular complex was injected into 12 rats with osteoarthritis of the knee joint, which was provoked by surgery. Injections were performed on day 28 and day 42 after the induction of osteoarthritis. Eight weeks later, a biopsy of articular cartilage was taken from the animals. In rats treated, the structure of cartilage did not differ from rats without osteoarthritis (12 animals), while in animals that were not treated (12 rats), degenerative changes were observed in the cartilage.
Scientists admit that the success of the experiment with rats cannot be fully transferred to humans due to differences in the structure of the joint. In the future, doctors plan to test the molecular complex in larger mammals.
Recently, we told that surgeons transplanted cartilage grown from nasal septum cells to patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, and this reduced pain and facilitated movement in the knee joint.
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