This is a micro-CT image of mouse skeleton, showing excessively
mineralized lesions (in red) along the spinal column and sternum (breastbone).
Researchers at Western University
have made a breakthrough that could lead to a better understanding of a common
form of arthritis that, until now, has eluded scientists.
According to The Arthritis Society,
the second most common form of arthritis after osteoarthritis is
"diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis" or DISH. It affects
between six and 12 percent of North Americans, usually people older than 50.
DISH is classified as a form of degenerative arthritis and is characterized by
the formation of excessive mineral
deposits along the sides of the vertebrae in the neck and back.
Symptoms of DISH include spine
pain and stiffness and in advanced cases, difficulty swallowing and damage to
spinal nerves. The cause of DISH is unknown and there are no specific
treatments.
Now researchers at Western University's
Bone and Joint Initiative, with collaborator Doo-Sup Choi at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minnesota have discovered the first-ever mouse model of this disease.
The research is published online in the Journal of
Bone and Mineral Research.
"This model will allow us
for the first time to uncover the mechanisms underlying DISH and related
disorders. Knowledge of these mechanisms will ultimately allow us to test novel
pharmacological treatments to reverse or slow the development of DISH in
humans," says corresponding author Cheryle Séguin of the Skeletal Biology
Laboratories and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western's
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
Graduate student Derek Bone,
working under the supervision of pharmacologist James Hammond, was studying
mice that had been genetically modified to lack a specific membrane protein
that transports adenosine when he noticed that these mice developed abnormal
calcification (mineralization) of spinal structures.
Changes in the backbone of these
mice were characterized by an interdisciplinary team which included: Sumeeta
Warraich, Diana Quinonez, Hisataka Ii, Maria Drangova, David Holdsworth and
Jeff Dixon. Their findings established that spinal mineralization in these mice
resembles DISH in humans and point to a role for adenosine in causing abnormal
mineralization in DISH.
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