Biloine W. Young • Tue, September 30th, 2014
Cartilage is to blame after all. Once believed to be an innocent bystander in cases of rheumatoid arthritis, researchers in Melbourne, Australia, find that cartilage plays an active role in the destruction of joints.
As reported by Allan Gill of Medical Press, a team of researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute made the discovery while investigating the role of the protein SOCS3 in controlling inflammation. Arthritis causes pain and inflammation in joints and, over time, destroys the cartilage that lubricates and cushions the joints. Bones can even be remodeled by rheumatoid arthritis which leads to disfigurement and increased pain.
For a long time doctors thought that cartilage was a victim of a patient’s overzealous immune system. Then Tommy Liu, M.D., and his colleagues found that cartilage “participates in the production of inflammation-signaling chemicals and contributes to its own destruction,” he said.
